(02-24-2022 07:53 AM)boss man Wrote: This never would have happened with Trump in the White House. HARD STOP.
Everyone knows it, so quit deflecting from this crisis Biden* must address.
China will move on Taiwan next.
The Depends-Wearer-In-Chief has to step up to his duties.
No, everyone does not know or agree with that. I'd be careful with the phrase "Everyone knows it", it is one the former President often uses when he is about to say something that is far from universally agreed upon. Many certainly think this wouldn't have happened with Trump in the White House, and none of us can ever really know for sure. I previously posted my opinion on this in one of our other Russia threads -
I disagree. I think Putin wouldn't have done anything like this in Trump's FIRST term, because he didn't want to complicate Trump's path to reelection. For whatever reason, Trump was enamored with Putin and his authoritarian charisma. Remember this is the President who stood beside Putin in Helsinki and said he didn't see any reason why Putin would have meddled in the 2016 election.
And as we see from Russian demands in this crisis, Putin is obsessed with NATO. Division within NATO is one of the greatest gifts Putin can receive, and Trump was Orthodox Christmas in that regard. Trump was disliked and not trusted by many other NATO leaders, and he frequently questioned the value of the alliance itself. So far we've seen an impressive degree of NATO coherence on this issue, thanks to a return to treating our allies like allies under President Biden.
So I think in a Trump 2nd term with no reelection for Putin to consider we'd be just as or even more likely to see this sort of behavior from Putin. Trump wouldn't send American troops to defend Ukraine any more than Biden would, and there would be a lesser likelihood of Putin having to contend with a united front from NATO.
(02-24-2022 09:18 AM)maximus Wrote: (02-24-2022 07:47 AM)U_of_Elvis Wrote: At least Biden isn’t cheering on a dictator invading a democracy, unlike your wannabe dictator Trump.
"This is genius," he said of Putin's decision on Monday to officially recognize the breakaway provinces and authorize the use of Russian military personnel to assist them. "So Putin is now saying it’s independent — a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right."
What part of that is untrue?
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I think you and the former President are both right here, Putin is smart and has been a great president for Russia in terms of military strength & influence. I've said before he is playing the game several levels above any of the Western leaders he has faced off with during his long tenure.
I think the issue here is not that Trump is incorrect about what he said, it's that we don't normally (never before that I can recall) see our former Presidents pointing out how clever the enemy's tactics are during an active crisis. Both parties used to do a better job of following the old adage, "politics stop at the water's edge." I can see how Trump is in a different position than normal, as we aren't used to seeing ex-presidents who will likely run again for the office. So he has a unique interest in commenting on current events in a way most former presidents do not. But this does look a lot like cheerleading for Putin to me, I think he'd be wiser to stick to pointing out ways he would have handled things differently than Biden has.
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"You will have consequences that you never have had before in your history.”
