PLUS ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The French are right. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
On Tuesday, United States President Joe Biden, speaking at the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York, gave all the reasons why the world will be more of the same.
True, he talked of trading in "relentless war" for "relentless diplomacy". True, too, he spoke about leading "the world towards a more peaceful, prosperous future for all people". But in the same breath, Biden was talking of using the power of development aid to "invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world" and to "renew and defend democracy".
And "human rights" weren't far behind. Here is a president who withdraws the US from Afghanistan promising to create more Afghanistans around the world. Never mind that Kabul was a failed experiment of 20 years. When Biden took office, he promised the world that his US will be all about "power of example", not about "example of power".
Today, hardly a year into his presidency, he is talking of leading America "not just with the example of our power but, God willing, with the power of our example". Note the order. What a switch. Moments earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the world being on the edge of an abyss.
Biden has just told us that the US and its allies will make sure the world stays there.
Biden's "relentless diplomacy" is war by another name. Make no mistake. Bombs and bullets will be there on flimsiest of excuses, like threats to "our interests and security".
Not just those of the interests and security of the US, but also its allies and partners. If the threats aren't there, they will be said to be "imminent".
Or they will be "made" to be there. Like Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Presidents and prime ministers will do the forum circuit speaking of clash of values as invasion preliminaries.
The so-called "liberal" media will fill their column inches with "them versus us" op-eds and guest essays. And how they are failing their women. Never mind if the "civilised" treat their women less honourably.
The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were preceded by weeks of such yarns.
Nowhere will the world be more la même chose than in the Middle East. Biden himself provided the reason: "The commitment of the United States to Israel's security is without question. And our support for an independent, Jewish state is unequivocal."
Is Biden hinting at an unfinished Greater Israel Zionist project? How could a nuclear-powered Goliath of a regime be threatened by Palestinians in an open prison? If the "US opposes attempts by stronger countries to dominate weaker ones through changes to territories by force", as he said in New York, then why isn't Biden stopping Israel's settlement colonisation of Palestine?
America can't speak of supporting a two-state solution while secretly nudging the Zionist regime to erect illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
We put it to Biden that if America indeed believes in "the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world", as he says it does, then why deny freedom, justice and peace to the Palestinians?
Because Biden chooses to deny them freedom, justice and peace, though he has the power and capacity to not spurn them thus.