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Even if we excuse Donald Trump, as the D-Student he was, who has no comprehensive grasp of World History, and no interest in learning — the fact remains, that Russia’s autocratic leader Putin, has been no friend to Western Democracies, even if we look at only very recent “history” …
Yet Donald Trump chooses to “side with” Russian interests anyways, and alienate historically important American allies, those who actually believe in prompting free societies, and open democracies — something that America used to be a staunch advocate for, the world leader for.
Lest Trump has already forgotten, here are some of the recent ways that Russia has shown itself to be no friend of the Western democracies, and certainly no friend worth turning over the “international apple cart” and decades of diplomacy for.
Here are just a few of the more egregious examples of Putin’s RECENTLY directed, “unfriendly” projects:
Russian spy poisoning: Nerve agent inspectors back UK — BBC News
Russia and Turkey Send Troops to Syria, Build New Gas Pipeline at Home — Newsweek
Cyberattack on Critical Infrastructure: Russia and the Ukrainian Power Grid Attacks — jsis.washington.edu
'The United States is under attack': DNI Coats warns of cyberthreats — CNBC.com
Jailed Russian: Here’s How I Hacked The U.S. Election — fastcompany.com
Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections — dni.gov
All those current Russian events, have barely registered a momentary blimp, on the Donald Trump “personal radar”, if even that.
Despite all these Putin-directed attacks, Trump is still insisting Russia is ‘just like us’ and belongs back in the International Alliance of liberal free countries …
Trump plows into G-7 summit, confronts allies on trade and pushes to reinstate Russia
by Catherine Lucy, Rob Gillies and Zeke Miller, Associated Press — June 8, 2018
Bruising for a fight, President Donald Trump barreled into the Group of Seven summit Friday, confronting longtime U.S. allies over a burgeoning trade dispute and insisting Russia should be brought back into the fold.
[...]
Over the course of his presidency, Trump has inflamed allies with his isolationist policies, including withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and the international Iran nuclear agreement. Under Trump, the United States has abandoned its traditional role in the G-7 as an advocate for freer global trade, instead pushing more protectionist policies.
"The rules-based international order is being challenged, not by the usual suspects but by its main architect and guarantor: the United States," said European Council President Donald Tusk.
As you can see, America’s Allies are not amused.
Yet the History-deficient Trump insists on trashing America’s hard won-gains, to establish world peace and prosperity since WWII. Trump doesn’t mind trashing the G7 alliance, something that has been on the top of Putin’s To Do List for years now.
… All for what? … because Putin said ”Jump Donald jump, you owe us.” … ?
Or because the current accidental US president — Trump.is.just.that.Stupid … ?
Trump Is Making the Case That He’s Putin’s Puppet
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Jonathan Chait makes a similar point.
“Senior government officials in Washington, London, Berlin, and other European capitals” tell Susan Glasser “they now worry that Trump may be a greater immediate threat to the alliance than even authoritarian great-power rivals, such as Russia and China.” Trump might be a greater threat to the West than Putin. Worse, he might be, in a sense, the very same threat.
None of this is an attempt to revive the Cold War. In some ways, the fact that the threat is coming from Russia is inconsequential. This is actually about a country run by an authoritarian leader who wants to break up the kinds of alliances that have kept the global order fairly stable for the last 60 years and take us back to the “Great Power” politics that resulted in two world wars. Rather than standing up to that threat, our current president is playing the role of puppet to that leader while congressional Republicans stand on the sidelines and give him a pass. Anyone who doesn’t find that both shocking and dangerous isn’t paying attention.
Most politically astute observers, keenly remember this startling, fore-shadowing exchange:
So here’s the direct question for the fumbling, bumbling, china-shop Donald now:
“If it’s true you are ‘No Putin Puppet’ — as you promised the American people back in the 2016 Debates — Why then are you such a big advocate of Russian interests?
Why Mr president are you doing nearly everything that Vladimir Putin has always wanted, to break up the Alliance of America with Western democracies on the global stage?”
What does the Autocrat have on him? … Besides about a dozen invisible strings, a backlog of unpaid loans, and huge stack of unreturned political favors …
History-aware Americans should really want to know.