{"id":312456,"date":"2026-01-26T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=312456"},"modified":"2026-01-24T07:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:36:25","slug":"the-weak-must-suffer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/01\/the-weak-must-suffer\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Weak Must Suffer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The empty UN Security Council Chamber in New York City (Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The Eternal Fiction of the \u2018International Rules-Based Order\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

23 Jan 2026\u00a0<\/em>– These are exceptional times. The United States has been threatening to take over Greenland, an aggressive move against Europe. Now, and only now, are political leaders and compliant news media publicly acknowledging that the \u2018international rules-based order\u2019 is no more. Of course, it was only ever a convenient myth, blown wide open by the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

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Trump managed to dismiss Greenland\u2019s status as part of Denmark with typical chutzpah:<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m a big fan [of Denmark], but the fact that they had a boat land there five hundred years ago doesn\u2019t mean that they own the land\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was a tragicomic remark, displaying Trump\u2019s apparent ignorance of his own country\u2019s history. As many pointed out on social media, the indigenous peoples of North America made the same point about the White settlers from Europe who came by boat and who stole the natives\u2019 land and committed genocide.<\/p>\n

Like a disgruntled toddler, Trump even linked his threat to seize control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize which, ludicrously, had just been \u2018gifted\u2019 to him by the winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado (the Norwegian Nobel Committee later stated that the prize itself is non-transferable).<\/p>\n

On 18 January, Trump sent an infantile text message to the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re:<\/p>\n

\u2018Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, responded<\/a> to Trump\u2019s threat to take Greenland:<\/p>\n

\u2018Territorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law.<\/p>\n

\u2018They are essential for Europe and for the international community as a whole.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her ostensible concern for international law was absent when it came to the recent outrageous and illegal US kidnapping<\/a> of the Venezuelan president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. Even worse, her concern for international law has been conspicuously lacking during Israel\u2019s ongoing genocidal assault on the Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

In fact, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, strongly alluded to the fact that the supposed framework of international law, territorial law and sovereignty had been a sham all along. In a remarkable speech<\/a> to the global elite at Davos, Switzerland, he began with an aphorism by the ancient Greek historian and general Thucydides that:<\/p>\n

\u2018the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is notable that Noam Chomsky has often cited<\/a> this quote to highlight the gap between the stated lofty aims of great power and the brutal reality for those on the receiving end of imperial force. We are not claiming that Carney has suddenly become an acolyte of Chomsky. But perhaps Canada\u2019s leader has been emboldened to speak out by recent world events and feels honour-bound to give an impression of someone being at least minimally honest to his domestic Canadian audience and the wider public.<\/p>\n

Carney went on to say that:<\/p>\n

\u2018We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A glaring example, which he did not voice, is the Western condemnation of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine while the West has refused to condemn or even acknowledge Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza. Indeed, the US and its allies, including the UK, have been complicit or even participants <\/em>in the genocide, having armed Israel, provided military training, intelligence support and diplomatic cover.<\/p>\n

Carney continued to expand on the myth of the global \u2018rules-based order\u2019:<\/p>\n

\u2018This fiction was useful. And American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No mention, however, of the appalling costs of that American hegemony to much of the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

Carney then added:<\/p>\n

\u2018We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.<\/p>\n

\u2018This bargain no longer works.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A \u2018bargain\u2019 for the comfortable in privileged parts of the world, perhaps; but not for those who have suffered US-inflicted wars, regime changes, \u2018humanitarian interventions\u2019 and much else besides.<\/p>\n

The admission that \u2018we\u2019, a term which really means Western leaders and their media cheerleaders, have \u2018largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality\u2019 is significant. Obviously, any reasonably-well informed person has known this all along. But the media preferred to skip merrily past this crucial aspect of Carney\u2019s speech, as we will see below.<\/p>\n

Unwelcome Truths About US Imperialism<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The rise of US imperialism, especially since the end of the Second World War, has been accompanied and promoted by grandiose assertions about spreading democracy, peace and prosperity. The self-serving ideology has underpinned all of the following horrors and many more:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order \u2018to bring about the surrender of Japan and end WW2\u2019: a demonstrably<\/a> false narrative.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh, the democratically-elected leader of Iran to be replaced by the dictatorial, US-compliant Shah in 1953.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The Indonesian coup in 1965, killing up to one million people, to install the brutal, Washington-friendly General Suharto.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The invasion and bombing of Vietnam (and Laos and Cambodia) \u2018to stop the spread of Communism\u2019 in the 1960 and 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Extensive support in the 1980s for right-wing governments and paramilitary groups in Latin America, utilising death squads to suppress leftist movements.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The Persian Gulf war in 1990-91, with an estimated<\/a> 30,000 to 100,000 Iraqi military deaths, and up to 5,000 civilian deaths.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Sanctions on Iraq in the 1990s which led to the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Iraqi civilians<\/a>, including around 500,000 children under the age of five<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The 2001 invasion-occupation of Afghanistan: the first of the US post-9\/11 wars which have led to an estimated total death toll of around five million people<\/a> in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The 2003 invasion-occupation of Iraq, leading to the deaths of over one million Iraqis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The 2011 bombing of Libya and the destruction of much its infrastructure, acting as a catalyst for a massive surge in jihadist activity across north Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The 2014 coup in Ukraine to impose US-backed regime change, fuelling dangerous tensions with Russia.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Crippling economic sanctions and military threats against Iran, including joint air strikes with Israel on Iranian nuclear facilities; together with the fomenting of violence<\/a> inside Iran by CIA-backed NGOs and Mossad, Israel\u2019s spy agency.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The strangling of the Venezuelan economy through sanctions, and the kidnapping of the Venezuelan leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, on 3 January 2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of the above is but a fraction of the crimes committed by the US empire over many decades. For more information, read any number of books by Noam Chomsky<\/a>, Edward Herman<\/a>, William Blum<\/a>, Howard Zinn<\/a>, Michael Parenti<\/a>, Naomi Klein<\/a>, John Pilger<\/a>, Seymour Hersh<\/a>, Media Lens<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

The British state-corporate media response was telling. The crucial segment of his speech about the longstanding \u2018fiction\u2019 of the \u2018international rules-based order\u2019 and \u2018the gaps between rhetoric and reality\u2019 was almost entirely buried. If we had responsible, public-service news media in this country they would have quoted that vital section, word-for-word, and <\/em>provided relevant context and substantive analysis as to what it meant.<\/p>\n

Predictably, the BBC\u2019s online report<\/a> simply omitted that part of Carney\u2019s speech. BBC News at Ten devoted all of twenty seconds to the speech. The short snippet showed Carney saying that \u2018the rules-based order is fading\u2019, followed by his citing of the Thucydides quote. But BBC North America editor Sarah Smith merely said in her voiceover that his speech \u2018echoed Greenland\u2019s right to sovereignty\u2019. The rest of Carney\u2019s comments disappeared down the proverbial BBC black hole.<\/p>\n

The Guardian had a live feed<\/a> which quoted Carney saying that \u2018the rules-based order is fading\u2019 and that the world faces \u2018\u201cthe end of a pleasant fiction and the dawn of a harsh reality of geopolitics\u201d in which the great powers are unconstrained.\u2019 But there was no elucidation to help readers understand the magnitude of Carney\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Worse, a dedicated \u2018analysis\u2019 piece<\/a> in the Guardian made no mention of Carney\u2019s remarks about the \u2018fiction\u2019 of the rules-based order, or \u2018the gaps between rhetoric and reality\u2019. It did, however, cite his quoting of Thucydides that:<\/p>\n

\u2018the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The following day, Julian Borger, the Guardian\u2019s senior international correspondent, had a comment piece<\/a> focusing on \u2018Trump\u2019s rambling Davos speech\u2019 that briefly quoted Carney\u2019s observation about \u2018the end of a pleasant fiction\u2019, without exploring what that meant. Patrick Wintour, the paper\u2019s diplomatic editor, took a similar approach in his comment piece<\/a>, noting that Carney had \u2018vowed he would no longer live in a state of nostalgia, waiting for an old world to return\u2019. A deeper insight and explanation of the speech was almost comically absent.<\/p>\n

It was safe territory for journalists to refer to \u2018nostalgia\u2019 for \u2018an old world\u2019 that would never \u2018return\u2019. But it was verboten<\/em> to point out that the nostalgia was misplaced; that there never was an old world that adhered to an international order upholding peace, stability and democracy. As ever, the Guardian\u2019s ability to steer clear of dangerous waters is testament to its establishment credentials.<\/p>\n

The Independent had a short article<\/a> briefly mentioning Carney\u2019s observation that \u2018the world order based on rules has become \u201cfiction\u201d\u2019. The article also included the Canadian prime minister\u2019s warning that:<\/p>\n

\u2018If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But the extensive brutal reality and sordid history behind the phrase, \u2018the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests\u2019, was left unmentioned and unexplored. To the Independent\u2019s credit, however, the following day it published the full text<\/a> of Carney\u2019s speech. The Financial Times also published a transcript<\/a> of the speech.<\/p>\n

From our Nexis newspaper database searches, the above was the sum total of media mentions in the UK national press of the most vital passages from Carney\u2019s speech. Judging by other people\u2019s observations on social media, such as the responses to our viral post<\/a> on X about BBC reporting of the speech, this pattern was repeated in other western countries.<\/p>\n

US political analyst Glenn Greenwald made<\/a> an important point:<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s amazing to watch mainstream western media outlets completely and brazenly distort what Mark Carney said.<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019re pretending he was just attacking Trump: as if Carney was claiming we had a nice \u201crules-based international order\u201d until Trump came along.<\/p>\n

\u2018No. Carney said that this \u201crules-based international order\u201d has long been a fraud that western nations pretended was true because it was in their interests to maintain this lie.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Greenwald added:<\/p>\n

\u2018But establishment outlets like the NYT, CBC, The Atlantic, The Economist, etc. etc. can\u2019t grapple with or even acknowledge Carney\u2019s confession, because those outlets have been central to embracing and ratifying and spreading this precise fiction.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are crucial observations about the media\u2019s unwillingness or inability to honestly appraise and dissect Carney\u2019s remarks. Although, to what extent Carney\u2019s speech was really a \u2018confession\u2019, or whether there was an element of performative politics to assuage the public and maintain a semblance of credibility, is up for debate.<\/p>\n

But, as always, for the \u2018mainstream\u2019 media, crucial truths about imperial Western power are not deemed worthy of significant broadcast, far less explanation.<\/p>\n

Update, 24 January 2026<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Guardian published a transcript<\/a> of Mark Carney\u2019s speech on their website.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Media Lens is a UK-based media watchdog group headed by David Edwards and David Cromwell. In 2007,<\/em> Media Lens was awarded the <\/em>Gandhi Foundation International Peace Prize<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0We have written three co-authored books<\/em>:\u00a0Guardians of Power-The Myth of the Liberal Media <\/a>(Pluto Press, 2006),<\/em> Newspeak-In the 21st Century<\/a> (Pluto Press, 2009), and<\/em> Propaganda Blitz<\/a> (Pluto Press, 2018)<\/em>. Contacts: David Edwards: <\/em>editor@medialens.org<\/em><\/a> – David Cromwell: <\/em>editor@medialens.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 medialens.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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