old salt wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 5:10 pm
Who's bending the knee ? Our actions are just the opposite.You must be responding to the media narrative (which you say does not matter).
Sigh. YOU are saying we should bend the knee because you're afraid of a Cold War. You think we should follow Germany's lead, drop sanctions, and act like Putin isn't still messing with us. I realize that we're not doing that now. YOU are telling us that Trump would change course, and avoid a Cold War only if mean Rachel Maddow would let him.
old salt wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 5:10 pm
Not just the media. The entire national security & foreign policy establishment, in Congress, in & out of govt.
You mean the same folks who told Obama not to pull out of Iraq? Those people? Strange, Obama ignored them just fine. He have magic beans? Nope. Turns out, he was President, and can do whatever he wishes overseas, and no one can stop him.
Nothing is keeping Trump from doing anything he wishes with Putin. Hell, he just dropped a guy off of the sanctions list, and he's building a freaking aluminum factory in McConnell's home state!! Anyone saying anything about this obvious grift? Nope. It's full steam ahead. So just stop. Trump can do whatever he wishes. Ask him. He'll tell you as much.
old salt wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 5:10 pm
During the Bush terms, new guy Putin acted more like an ally than an adversary, until he moved on Georgia at the end of Bush's second term. We couldn't have operated in Afghanistan without Russia's help. Putin was reacting to western overtures to Georgia & Ukraine for NATO & EU membership, after NATO's second expansion, right up to Russia's borders.
Right. Both you and the rest of the Cold War wonks think that Russia "owns" Georgia and Ukraine, and that they aren't allowed to do as they please. And if they do? Well, then of course Putin is correct in reacting the way he does, and the problem is the EU is "wrong" for inviting a sovereign nation to joint. The 80's called. It wants its world order back....is that it?
Sorry, I disagree with you.