Yep On Aug 7, 2016 7:44 AM, "MJ" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > August 1, 2016 > > *Is Trump the Peace Candidate? *By Patrick J. Buchanan > > With Democrats howling that Vladimir Putin hacked into and leaked those > 19,000 DNC emails to help Trump, the Donald had a brainstorm: Maybe the > Russians can retrieve Hillary Clinton’s lost emails. > > Not funny, and close to “treasonous,” came the shocked cry. > > Trump then told the New York Times that a Russian incursion into Estonia > need not trigger a U.S. military response. > > Even more shocking. By suggesting the U.S. might not honor its NATO > commitment, under Article 5, to fight Russia for Estonia, our > foreign-policy elites declaimed, Trump has undermined the security > architecture that has kept the peace for 65 years. > > More interesting, however, was the reaction of Middle America. Or, to be > more exact, the nonreaction. Americans seem neither shocked nor horrified. > What does this suggest? > > Behind the war guarantees America has issued to scores of nations in > Europe, the Mideast and Asia since 1949, the bedrock of public support that > existed during the Cold War has crumbled. > > We got a hint of this in 2013. Barack Obama, claiming his “red line” > against any use of poison gas in Syria had been crossed, found he had no > public backing for air and missile strikes on the Assad regime. > > The country rose up as one and told him to forget it. He did. > > We have been at war since 2001. And as one looks on the ruins of > Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen, and adds up the thousands dead > and wounded and trillions sunk and lost, can anyone say our War Party has > served us well? > > On bringing Estonia into NATO, no Cold War president would have dreamed of > issuing so insane a war guarantee. > > Eisenhower refused to intervene to save the Hungarian rebels. JFK refused > to halt the building of the Berlin Wall. LBJ did nothing to impede the > Warsaw Pact’s crushing of the Prague Spring. Reagan never considered moving > militarily to halt the smashing of Solidarity. > > Were all these presidents cringing isolationists? > > Rather, they were realists who recognized that, though we prayed the > captive nations would one day be free, we were not going to risk a world > war, or a nuclear war, to achieve it. Period. > > In 1991, President Bush told Ukrainians that any declaration of > independence from Moscow would be an act of “suicidal nationalism.” > > Today, Beltway hawks want to bring Ukraine into NATO. This would mean that > America would go to war with Russia, if necessary, to preserve an > independence Bush I regarded as “suicidal.” > > Have we lost our minds? > > The first NATO supreme commander, Gen. Eisenhower, said that if U.S. > troops were still in Europe in 10 years, NATO would be a failure. In 1961, > he urged JFK to start pulling U.S. troops out, lest Europeans become > military dependencies of the United States. > > Was Ike not right? Even Barack Obama today riffs about the “free riders” > on America’s defense. > > Is it really so outrageous for Trump to ask how long the U.S. is to be > responsible for defending rich Europeans who refuse to conscript the > soldiers or pay the cost of their own defense, when Eisenhower was asking > that same question 55 years ago? > > In 1997, geostrategist George Kennan warned that moving NATO into Eastern > Europe “would be the most fateful error of American policy in the post-Cold > War era.” He predicted a fierce nationalistic Russian response. > > Was Kennan not right? NATO and Russia are today building up forces in the > eastern Baltic where no vital U.S. interests exist, and where we have never > fought before – for that very reason. > > There is no evidence Russia intends to march into Estonia, and no reason > for her to do so. But if she did, how would NATO expel Russian troops > without air and missile strikes that would devastate that tiny country? > > And if we killed Russians inside Russia, are we confident Moscow would not > resort to tactical atomic weapons to prevail? After all, Russia cannot back > up any further. We are right in her face. > > On this issue Trump seems to be speaking for the silent majority and > certainly raising issues that need to be debated. > > How long are we to be committed to go to war to defend the tiny Baltic > republics against a Russia that could overrun them in 72 hours? > > When, if ever, does our obligation end? If it is eternal, is not a clash > with a revanchist and anti-American Russia inevitable? > > Are U.S. war guarantees in the Baltic republics even credible? > > If the Cold War generations of Americans were unwilling to go to war with > a nuclear-armed Soviet Union over Hungary and Czechoslovakia, are the > millennials ready to fight a war with Russia over Estonia? > > Needed now is diplomacy. > > The trade-off: Russia ensures the independence of the Baltic republics > that she let go. And NATO gets out of Russia’s face. > > Should Russia dishonor its commitment, economic sanctions are the answer, > not another European war. > > http://buchanan.org/blog/trump-peace-candidate-125499 > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "PoliticalForum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
