Just now circa 9:10pm EST 11/23/2020. heard Rachel Maddow reporting that Trump has withdrawn (illegally — Congress is supposed to approve any changes) from the Open-Skies Treaty that allows 34 countries to surveil each other’s skies, including Russia and the U.S., and to share the information, with the purpose of deterring war, and has ordered destruction of the two U.S. planes that surveil other countries. Rachel further reported that the destruction of the planes is in progress.
This has had apparent concordance from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a military man himself, first in his class at West Point, and a very dangerous opportunist.
Rachel interpreted it as just being Trump being destructive.
Could it be worse ? Could he want to stop surveillance of U.S. territory so as to prepare an attack on somewhere ? Would an attack allow him to declare martial law ?
Or could he be enabling Putin in some way… is Russia also withdrawing ? And planning military action somewhere ?
This is just speculation. But the age of Trump is full of unpleasant surprises. Maybe an ace reporter like our Mark Sumner can nail what’s really happening. Hopefully the U.S. military would stymie any attempt by Donald to do anything so rash.
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Just now saw diary by Eyesbright that reported the same action by Trump. But did not indulge in the same speculations as those above. But saw it as a favor to Putin.
A commenter on Eyesbright’s diary noted that our satellite surveillance renders the Open Skies surveillance obsolete since we can very well see what other countries are up to. And one presumes that the Russians and Chinese have the same facilities.
So maybe there is an entirely innocent explanation for withdrawal from the Treaty. Though Rachel said it is actually illegal for Trump to do this without Congressional approval.
One other thought: does withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty remove our obligation to share information with the other members of the treaty on military threats ?
Of course there is the mini war between Armenia / Azerbaijan where Putin would no doubt like a free hand.