TO begin with, the Philippines would have been truly independent as early as 1898 had it not been for the United States stealing the success of the Katipunan revolt against the three-century-old colonization of the country by Spain. Starting its expansion into the Asia-Pacific, America had blasted its navy ship USS Maine in February 1898 while anchored in the Havana Harbor, then blaming it on Spain as a justification for America to start the Spanish-American War. Thus began America’s ingenuity at devising false flags in order to justify its wars for advancing its colonial agenda.

As a settlement of the Spanish-American War of 1898, through the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. With that amount, America acquired the prerogative to use its vast superiority in firepower in subjugating the Katipuneros, killing all 200,000 of them, and in the next half century turned Philippine soil into fertile ground for forever planting American colonial culture, totally killing the Indigenous Filipino heritage.

It was another false flag in 1964 that America employed in concocting the totally fictitious Gulf of Tonkin incident which justified US intervention in the Vietnam War.

As history would have it, the US defeat in the Vietnam War in 1975 triggered its subsequent record of defeats in its world wars of intervention: in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and what, going by the dynamics of trends, appears to be imminent in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, Iran and Israel.

As indicated by the cold treatment he got from European Union countries at the recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in the Netherlands, Trump is about to lose his friends as well.

And wait, not just his allies, in fact, but also his very own constituents who have begun demanding his ouster. His military chief of staff has openly defied his order to use military force in implementing his order of deporting immigrants in their thousands, nay, millions, the biggest number being in California whose governor Gavin Newsom has declared openness to breaking away from the Union and joining up with Mexico, which in the geopolitical context has expressed aligning with Iran, that is, versus the US.

So, whether at home or abroad, Trump has been starting wars, not ending them.

Lest we might be rather nonchalant in appraising Trump, let’s take stock of the full measure of his threat to Russia and Iran: that America doesn’t start wars, it ends them.

Sure, America did not start World War II; Hitler did when he annexed Poland in 1938. But did you know that even before that, US President Franklin Roosevelt had been urging British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to do the annexing, but the latter declined precisely for fear of antagonizing Germany?

That is what America is best at: instigator of war between countries for it to benefit underhandedly. Documents on the Holocaust reveal American labels engraved on the steel used for jailing millions of Jews where they were eventually gassed to death.

Either way the wind blows, America is a contented beneficiary. Herman Tiu Laurel, president of the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute Inc., in a post, compares Trump to a “trumpo” (top) which twirls every which way, bouncing in a chaotic course from wall to wall, with no specific direction.

Indeed, in the short-lived Hindu-Pakistan war, Trump started it by prompting, through US Vice President JD Vance, India to start the hostilities. When the initial attack by India with a fleet of the top-notch French-made jet fighters Rafales was repelled by Chinese-supplied missiles even before they could penetrate Pakistan’s airspace, the “Trumpo” made a 180-degree turnaround, castigating India and glorifying Pakistan. And yet, with the sudden intervention by the US in the Israel-Iran war, Trump warned Pakistan not to meddle.

And while under other circumstances the US expresses animosity against China, in the Iran-Israel confrontation, Trump beseeches China to help by talking to Iran and asking the Islamic fundamentalist country to accept the US call for a ceasefire.

China would not do that, of course.

Here’s how one analysis goes: “China just declared full support for Iran against the United States, and the world is now split into two camps. This isn’t just Middle East politics anymore. We’re watching the formation of a new global alliance system that could reshape everything. Russia followed China’s lead, warning that any action against Iran is an action against Moscow. Pakistan jumped in, offering diplomatic and military backing. North Korea, Armenia, Lebanon and Yemen all lined up behind Iran. That’s a massive coalition forming against Washington. But America is not isolated. France backed the strikes instantly. Canada and the UK pledged full support. India stayed quiet, but their Washington leaning is obvious. Germany, Greece and Morocco joined the US side. What we’re seeing is the birth of two opposing superpowers. One axis led by China, Russia and Iran. Another centered on the US and its NATO allies. The scary part is both sides have nuclear weapons and neither is backing down. This looks exactly how World War I started. Small regional conflict. Major powers picking sides. Then boom.”

So, since by his own admission, Trump has succeeded in getting Iran to agree to a ceasefire, why did he allow Israel to fire the first shot knowing it would only motivate a corresponding response from Iran, which did happen.

Unless that was the intention.

But then again, wasn’t the containment of Iran’s nuclear program the objective of Israel’s attack?

Yes, indeed.

And America’s final use of its bunker buster bomb that went deep into the Earth before exploding must indicate the device did zero in on the exact location underground.

Trump gloated like a maddened gorilla beating its chest at the successful feat.

And the world believed.

Nobody but nobody ever thought of asking why there was no mushroom formation of explosion clouds as happened in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ultimately ended World War II in 1945.

A quick check of the nuclear blast process would reveal that such an explosion would not occur in the bunker buster operation since the “critical mass,” or what is referred to as the nuclear procedure, was not activated.

How foolhardy of Iran therefore!

We are at war, and you forget to turn on the mechanism for a bomb that you need to release at any given notice?

Or the bunker buster hit no target as bragged about?

Within a few hours of the bunker buster attack was Iran proving true to its threat of blasting every US military base across the Middle East as punishment for America’s blabbermouth.