DOCTOR BIDEN'S WAITING ROOM

President Biden travels.

Europeans and most NATO members will be delighted to meet again with a committed American leader.

The Geneva meeting with President Putin will give him an opportunity to state in no uncertain terms America's commitment with allies and impatience with foes.

Unfortunately, in the West the situation is far from simple. In the United States, Trump might be gone for now but his agenda lives, as long as the Republicans prefer sabotage to healing. NATO got stuck between cynical laissez faire (Turkey) and geopolitical reality (the Baltic States/Ukraine). The EU underperformes. With member states such as Hungary and Poland it can no longer claim the moral high ground. The UK has become fodder for magazines made for doctor's waiting rooms.

Furthermore, the rise of China cuts into America's soft-power supremacy.

Trump left America wounded and it looks as if the cracks which appeared in the psyche of the Americans remain unabeited. The scourge which led to the infamous siege of the Capitol lives on.

In reality President Biden arrives as the leader of a country that feels "diminished". President Putin will not be impressed. He knows too well that gentlemen no longer go to war.  George W. Bush was the last.  Clinton had to be pushed.

The trip will nevertheless renew the times of cordial personal relations between Western leaders. It will not stop the disputable actions of some, neither will it repair America's overall supremacy, mortgaged on the cheap by Trump.  If the US Congress were different, the parameters for diplomatic achievements would be wider. Unfortunately, most Republicans and some Democrats belong more in Bible class than in the informed sophisticated chamber the Senate was supposed to be.

One has to face the consequences of the downward spirit of the Westen saga. Brexit gave it a blow from which it doesn't recover. The EU headquarters in Brussels start to look like the relics of a former ambition.  Soon they might be opened to provide shelter to the new immigrants. At least they will find a purpose in their unglorious ending. Trump was impressed by the grotesk architecture of the new NATO headquarters. Knowing his "taste" it should not be considered a compliment.

One wonders if any honest person can still believe what he or she hears and sees, while India is a morgue, the Mediterranean a Gericault tableau mourant, Brazil a deadly farce, Sub-Sahara a shooting range.  Nevertheless, the G7 will be toasting the better times to come...for whom?

Maybe the West should consider slimming down. The fat from the good old days starts to look almost indecent, given the sorry state of affairs worldwide. Better look at China which does more with less.