The President-elect continues to draw criticism because of his stupid/uninformed statements, like ''NATO is obsolete" because it doesn't prevent terrorism. NATO was not created to prevent terrorism, it was created to counter the Soviet (now Russian) threat to Europe. Its purpose is to deter and respond to Russian aggression. Anyone who knows or cares about American or European history should know this. Anyone who thinks it's not a threat apparently knows nothing about what has happened in the Ukraine, and the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. I'm sure Putin was pleased to hear the President elect say it was obsolete. Trump had to respond to European criticism by later saying it was "important." See
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/16/kremlin-agrees-germany-worries-after-trump-again-says-nato-is-obsolete/
Given Trump and Putin's mutual admiration, and Russian hacking of the Dems to benefit Trump, if I were a resident of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia or any eastern European country who valued their nation and its independence, I'd feel a little uneasy now.
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The need for Nutty-O ended in 1991. It's just a money pit for the benefit of the war-toy boys' profits.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, Trump is correct. Our unending war in Afghanistan creates more terrorists each time we kill someone. That's the way tribal systems operate. NATO is creating terrorists.
Russia is no military threat. Russia has been gaining by trade what we have not been gaining by eternal war. Same for China, for that matter.
Art
Thanks for the post. You could be right, but I doubt it. I don't think nationalist Ukranians think there's no threat. Will the Kremlins strategy of manipulating pro-Russian people in Easter Europe to take up arms and drive their country to the Soviets sphere of influence disappear. You never miss deterrence until you really need it but don't have it. I suspect one of Putin's goals is to restore as much territory that the Soviet Union gave up, to Russia as possible.
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