Posted on 03/27/2016 9:44:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Daily Beast's foreign correspondent, Christopher Dickey, didn't pull any punches when asked what most Europeans think of GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and their recent statements about NATO and dealing with ISIS.
After playing footage of former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and Sec. of State John Kerry responding to Trump's assertion that the United States should rework our relationship with NATO, along with Ted Cruz and his constant threats to use carpet bombing to deal with ISIS, here's how Dickey responded to Chris Jansing's request for comment.
JANSING: What's the concern that you're hearing Chris, over on this side of the Atlantic and what would the possible repercussions be if there was serious conversation about the United States basically strategically changing the face of NATO?
DICKEY: Well, I don't think anybody really thinks that the United States is going to do that, but this feeds into a whole sort of malaise, to use the French word, about American reliability. Are the American people you can count on? Europe has counted on the American alliance as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ever since World War II. Now it's looking at a situation where a demagogue is running for president and says it's just too expensive, that maybe we should pull out and it isn't good at fighting terrorism anyway.
Well, okay. But it is good at helping to contain Russia, which is evermore aggressive. So when Hillary Clinton talked about Russia, or Putin particularly, feeling like it would be Christmas in the Kremlin, she's exactly right. When Trump says it's not good at fighting terrorism, okay. That's right. It's not a terrorist fighting organization, but there are other organizations that are developed and need to be developed more, but not by getting out of NATO.
It's a typical populist non sequitur. It sounds good to people who don't know anything about Europe and don't know anything about NATO, and frankly, don't know anything about terrorism, will say, ah well, that Mr. Trump, he sounds pretty good. But he doesn't to anybody who's got half a brain.
[…]
Well, these are frightening times in Europe for a lot of reasons. The economy is not in great shape, particularly here in France. The terrorism threat has been growing. There are wars all over the place, little wars that sometimes Americans don't even notice. You've got the push by Russia into Ukraine and the threat to the Baltics. All this going on makes people very, very nervous, and they'd like to think that their American friends would be reliable friends.
But now, they see what looks very much like a circus to them. […] Europeans look at this and they don't just scratch their heads. They shake their heads as though they're looking at the doom of the world. They really see it as an incredibly negative thing and then when you've got Ted Cruz on the other side saying we're going to carpet bomb places, well, good luck with that Ted.
That's not going to take care of ISIS, but that is going to cause a horrific blowback against America around the world. So I think that they are looking at a situation where they believe they are reasonable people, Europeans, and they are looking at an American political situation that is extraordinarily unreasonable, theatrical and dangerous.
The liberals are still around?
The Europeans should only be afraid if Cruz or Trump are Muslims.
Not surprising. Both Trump and Cruz mean the end of a whole lot of gravy trains.
But they loved Obama, so I question their judgement on our political elections.
They’re horrified that we may elect someone that knows how to negotiate for a change.
Unbelievable. The whole thing was a nonstop whine about how we are to stupid to understand things, that the defense of Europe from Russia is primarily American work, and that Russia has the slightest plan to invade Europe anyway.
The kicker is that for 75 years Europe has been sucking the American teat. And do they have gratitude for the days from when the Russians really were a menace? No, there is no thanks, just an expectation that we must do it forever.
Ingrates
I like how he and others use the word “populist” as a slander. The elites and self anointed Mandarins can do no wrong. And I clearly understand that pure democracy is bad. But god forbid a large number of people express a decide to set the direction of their nation on issues like war, alliances, the strip mining of middle class jobs, etc.
Can’t have normal people having their interests addressed.
They have been half-assed members since the mid-90's, and always on the verge of taking their ball and going home.
Putin starts saber rattling, and suddenly they are "concerned".
Obama gutted our overseas credibility for the last 7 years, and they are worried about Trump asking questions?
Do they want us to play, or don't they? NATO can't have it both ways.
Think maybe Europe will soon ask for Obama to give back his specious Nobel Peace Prize ?
The love on Obama dried up around the end of the second year. When they do some news piece connected to Obama....they use an unflattering picture of the guy. Even from the intellectural crowd on TV chatter...he’s an unskilled and immature leader. They will still blame Bush for things, but most of the stuff now going on (the Syria war, ISIS, etc)....Obama gets the general blame. Here’s the thing, other than Clinton and Kennedy....there hasn’t been some likable character as US president for the Europeans.
So Cruz and Trump scare them but Merkel and Obama don’t?
If this article is anywhere close to being accurate, Western Europeans are beyond redemption.
Trump may be an insufferable, shallow, thin-skinned, vindictive blowhard, but he's our insufferable, shallow, thin-skinned, vindictive blowhard.
Mind your own business.
I love it when liberal douchebags blow off at the mouth; they always tip their hands by using special "just us" keywords.... like "blowback". When you hear that word, you know you're listening to one of Them.
That's even if you didn't twig to the arrogance, hubris, and hatred of everything American except themselves.
FWIW I don't think you're hearing what Europe "thinks" in that magnificent <sarc> soliloquy, which rivals the speeches of Cicero and the grand prose of Edward Gibbon and Winston Churchill. </s>
What you're being treated to is 200lb of barnyard fertilizer in a 100-lb sack, all of it generated by Boy Genius there, and peddled as "the opinion of Europe". It's all the blogger's own opinion about things.
Don't be too hard on the Europeans, because I don't think they're really being represented here.
The French are concerned about reliability? What’s next? Democrats advocating fiscal responsibility?
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