President* Donald Trump left the door open to recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, telling reporters that such a move would be up for discussion when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.It has been a hallmark of world order that adjusting national borders by force of arms is simply not done anymore. It's illegal, in point of fact. One of the hallmarks of the post-1945 era in Europe is an extreme reluctance to recognize any change in borders. Nations might agree to split or there may be a struggle for local independence, but one nation marching in and grabbing territory of another is not tolerated.
That was what was and is so pernicious of Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula. The Russians marched in and took it. Any post-invasion vote of the population ratifying it is about as legitimate as the post-anschluss vote in Austria.
But Putin wants his seizure of the Crimea to be normalized and, as usual, Trump will be happy to do his bidding.
The question will be whether or not this little bit of treason will be too much for the GOP (or POT). I'm guessing that it won't be.
Putin wants the underlying reason for the sanctions he finds annoying and inconvenient to go away, taking the sanctions with it.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Republicans, going by the GOP senate delegation that visited the Duma, are all about "forging relationships" and "not being adversaries" and agreeing that meddling in elections is bad, which is OK since you didn't do it anyway.
One Russian lawmaker said "I didn't hear the word 'Crimea' once in two hours."
So they are pulling a long-time policy 180 that probably has Reagan's corpse clocking ten thousand RPM, and why?
Why bend so far over backwards to give Russia, who really is not their friend, what they want?
-Doug in Oakland
Doug, because they are no longer the "Grand Old Party" or the "Republican Party". They are the "Trump Party".
ReplyDeleteRepublican voters think that Trump is "draining the swamp" or "standing up for America" or "defending our borders". They close their eyes to his coziness with murderous dictators and his innate racism.
There was a country in the last century where people supported their national leader because they thought that he was making their country strong and standing up for its citizen and culture. Those people closed their minds to the crimes and bigotry of that leader. Afterwards, they pretended that they never really knew.
Nowadays, we call those people "Nazis". If this country survives Trump's attacks on the rule of law and the institutions of a liberal democracy, then, decades from now, a similar appellation will be given to those who, now, support him.
Thank you for your answer, Comrade. I just stole it and posted it elsewhere, with proper context and attribution, of course.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Oakland