May, Macron, Merkel: The Three Mumsketeers.

Captains with salt and ice in their muskets. Unarguably the three biggest losers in the just annulled Iran deal, allies left high and frying in the high desert, thumbs stuck deep in their asses. There is all the grand talk of keeping the Iran deal alive but even the most optimistic know that it is as dead as the dodo: without the US, it is difficult to see how it could even be kept on life support. In diplomatic rhetoric, American leaders used to refer to Britain, France and Germany as allies, speeches that often sounded patronizing, condescending at times, but even these thin icings of sugar have been brutally peremptorily dispensed with by President Trump in cancelling the deal. No single hint of consultation, no acknowledgement of the tough, enervating and complex negotiations these governments had to carry out in order to bring the deal to the table. No consideration of their interests. It was as if they were not there in the first instance. Macron even had to travel to America to indulge in some charm offensive that was nothing short of being comical. Trust Trump not to indulge in some sweet horseshit, pandering to some shitty allies. The damage has been massive but of more poignant disaster is the harm the whole fiasco has done to their reputation. Nobody will ever trust them to be agents of the United States again. If any country does, then a paradise exists on earth. A fool's paradise.
Grumblings in Europe have been very loud. Bruno Le Marie, France Economy Minister has talked about defending his country's 'economic sovereignty', bristling heatedly about France behaving as a vassal to the United States. But the chaffing reality is that his country is not only a vassal, politically, economically and militarily, it also has little power to compel its own big companies not to shiver whenever the US sneezes. The energy giant Total is pulling out of multi-billion deals it has signed with Iran and many companies in France and elsewhere in Europe are following suit.. For Daimler-Benz, as an example, the stark choice is between selling Mercedes cars in Iran and selling them in America. It is a terrible mismatch. Such is the level to which these countries have sunk from being great European powers to great vassals of the United States.
And to set fire to the shredded regalia, the man putting them through such torrid trials is a guy who cannot tell the difference between HIV and HPV. The job of the president of the United States might be the most powerful and glamorous one on earth but it is in no way the toughest or most cerebral. He needs to work as a team, surrounded by thousands of aides and advisers and he has the money, clout, connections and power to hire the best.. He could bring in the infernally brilliant James Rubins of this world with just a snap of his fingers. Nobody is expecting Aristotle to occupy the seat but then a president of the most powerful, most technically-savvy country on earth should be able to know the difference between the Human Papillomavirus and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HPV and HIV. Every schoolboy knows it and it is a pity Bill Gates had to tell us at an event that he had to explain the difference to the president. Twice. As early as 1980, long before the advent of HIV and AIDS, Time was doing a lot of articles on herpes and papilloma viruses. If such a common knowledge, such simple understanding, can elude our president, it becomes difficult envisaging how he would comprehend and grasp the nuances, the fine details of the hideously complex Iran deal. It is dead easy to suspect the deal was impetuously cancelled on the shallow fancy of a man that heads a country Europe has accustomed itself to in not-all-that graceful followership.  Too bad, too sad. May, Macron and Merkel will not only have to extricate their countries from this pathetic embrace, they will also have to extricate their economies, big businesses and to some extents their cultures. The missteps of the tango are becoming badly glaring.