View original postAs for the Abraham Accords, I wasn't too impressed by them even at the time, but after Oct 7th I don't know how anyone can still claim that they achieved anything in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No doubt there are some Israeli and Emirati businessmen who did benefit from them, as did the Moroccan government since the US gave them everything they wanted in their regional conflict in exchange for their signature, but in terms of actual peace in the Middle East they have proven just as useless as the critics expected at the time, for the obvious reason that you can't resolve a conflict while completely ignoring one of the two actual involved parties.
My understanding is that the Abraham Accords addressed the Israeli-Arab conflict, not the Israeli-Palestinian one. It was Peace to Prosperity that was supposed to cover everything Israeli-Palestinian. And yes, the latter was a steaming pile of shit that was in no way fair or reasonable. My interests don’t stray too far from the Sinosphere, so I’m not sure whether PtP is its own thing or rolled up with the AA.
View original postAs for China, I suppose one could make a case that being so volatile and all over the place is actually a clever way of dealing with the Chinese government, famed for its obsession with order, control, long term planning - always keep them guessing, keep them too confused to effectively counter you. Downside is that your own companies and those of your allies also kinda need long term planning and clarity if they're going to make the big investment decisions... so even if you think there's something to be said for it geopolitically, it's not exactly going to be great for the economy. Besides the other obvious downside that it annoys your allies as well as your opponent, but I guess by this point we have to just accept the reality that nobody in the Republican party, apart from maybe Mitch McConnell, gives a damn about the interests or feelings of any allies anymore.
Where Trump really fucked up here was with his idiotic attacks on other trade partners, threatening tariffs on Canada, Mexico, the EU, and others whilst finally doing something about the undeclared trade war China has been waging against America for a good 10-plus years. Picking fights with multiple trade partners all at the same time is self-defeating and just plain dumb. Plenty of other countries, US allies and otherwise, have serious trade issues with China. A wise leader would have tried to rally them into tackling China together. In both nominal and PPP terms the US GDP is about $29.2T, but the Chinese one goes from $18.3T to $37.1T, in rough numbers. China is big; it, like America, has critical mass economically. It’ll be tough to force change on them without the help and coordination of others. Once some sort of meaningful change has been effected - and it needs to be after the fact because fuck taking any more empty Chinese promises - then would be the time to take up problems with other countries’ trade practices. Alas, he’s on rinse and repeat.