Posted on 07/21/2016 5:02:26 AM PDT by Eurotwit
For example, asked about Russia’s threatening activities that have unnerved the small Baltic States that are among the more recent entrants into NATO, Mr. Trump said that if Russia attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations “have fulfilled their obligations to us.”
Mr. Trump had nothing but praise for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s increasingly authoritarian but democratically elected leader. “I give great credit to him for being able to turn that around,” Mr. Trump said of the coup attempt on Friday night. “Some people say that it was staged, you know that,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
Asked if Mr. Erdogan was exploiting the coup attempt to purge his political enemies, Mr. Trump did not call for the Turkish leader to observe the rule of law, or Western standards of justice. “When the world sees how bad the United States is and we start talking about civil liberties, I don’t think we are a very good messenger,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I await the knock on the door. It’ll probably be my neighbor wanting her lawn mowed, but *you never know*!
Looks like Trump just simply accepted what has happened. If Trump as president has to deal with Turkey then the guy he just refused to slime and make empty threats against is the one he will be negotiating with. As for NATO the orginal GB didn’t see fit to extend a unilateral defense commitment over the baltics and former USSR republics.
We are done as a 2-3 theaters of war simultaneously military powerhouse. We could maybe handle 1-1/2. We are broke. But worse than that what would be fighting for? The right to impose transgendered bathrooms? Global Warming?
He did not have to condemn Erdogan even.
Just say something like, “I urge the government and all parties to respect democracy, human rights etc. etc.”
More importantly, the last thing we need is for Turkey to explode into a Syria-style civil war with a dozen fighting factions. Erdogan may be bad news in many ways, but I've yet to see evidence of any superior alternatives likely to emerge.
He’s right. The US has no standing at this time to complain about any other country’s behavior.
You might be right.
The time for a military coup might have passed some 6-7 years ago.
Erdogan has been purging the army and putting in his own loyalists.
A Turkish civil war would obviously be a disaster for Europe.
Imagine the millions of refugees.
But, we can at least call for constraint, and call for human rights to be respected.
These are the non-financial NATO obligations:
According to the Study, countries seeking NATO membership would have to be able to demonstrate that they have fulfilled certain requirements. These include:
a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy;
the fair treatment of minority populations;
a commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflicts;
the ability and willingness to make a military contribution to NATO operations;
and
a commitment to democratic civil-military relations and institutional structures.
Oddly enough, the last point might have forced NATO to support Erdogan.
Well the draftees of that 1995 agreement were short sighted idiots.
Again, if they don’t want to support a mission against an enemy that is fighting (and WINNING) against most of the NATO members, they are not fulfilling their obligations and putting their own membership at risk. How about that?
Here is how I read it.
Trump is lacking all the CIA and NSA information on what is going on.
All he can do right now is NOT make anything worse in Turkey.
Turkey is Obama’s problem until Nov.
Indeed this bothers me, but I will wait for some time to pass to see if he follows up these statements.
I think he is wrong, but the good outweighs the bad.
I hope I don’t eat my words. Bush turned out to be a disappointment, but then again, would you have preferred Al Gore? God no.
Read the entire transcript:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html
The NY Times took the worst quotes and used them without context.
I pretty much take back everything.
I still would like to see encouragement for Erdogan to respect democratic rights and principles.
Please read the entire transcript.
It changed my view:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html
Please read the entire transcript.
It changed my view:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html
Could you provide a one or two sentence summary of what changed your mind, in which direction, and why?
He never said he would not defend his NATO allies - read in context he was just really putting weight on the importance of paying their fair share. The Erdogan comments I am still not happy about.
Actually he did. He said he would come to a country's defense only they had, in his opinion, "have fulfilled their obligations to us." If he judges that they haven't then he's pretty frank that the support wouldn't be there.
There doesn’t seem to be any “no” there:
“HABERMAN: And if not?
TRUMP: Well, I’m not saying if not. I’m saying, right now there are many countries that have not fulfilled their obligations to us.”
I don’t see anything to change my original opinion.
It's there in his fourth or fifth paragraph. He makes it clear that if the countries don't meet his conditions then he's prepared to tell them they're on their own.
Perhaps I bowed to peer pressure...
But, reading it in context seemed less aggravating.
The NY Times headline is still correct.
On the Erdogan issue I vehemently disagree, but as a candidate for President, could Trump go against the commander in chief (sigh), the general secretary of Nato and the EU?
The “smart” choice is to stay safe within the fold.
Though one of the reasons I like Trump is his willingness to go outside the politically correct consensus.
The one thing I think was lacking was a request for Erdogan to respect democracy and human rights.
We need to fight one battle at a time.
Trump will require Turkish airspace to wipe out ISIS. It is they who pose the greatest, most imminent threat to American and their defeat must be priority
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