Posted on 07/12/2018 9:46:07 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
BRUSSELS (AP) — While President Donald Trump's hectoring at the NATO summit alarmed many in the West, his message was mostly embraced Thursday along the alliance's eastern flank — the region that feels most threatened by an assertive Russia.
From Poland and the tiny Baltic states down to Romania, eastern leaders welcomed Trump's push for members of the 29-nation alliance to spend more on their militaries, something they have sought following Russian incursions in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014.
After all, they had been under Moscow's thumb for decades after World War II.
On the first day of the summit, Trump lambasted his partners for not spending their fair share on defense and asked on Twitter: "What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy?"(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
IMO NATO is an anachronism. We need to form alliances with central and eastern European nations (including Russia) along with many Asian nations. We need to isolate China unless they tone down their bullying in the region.
We should distance ourselves from western Europe unless they pull back from committing cultural suicide.
And the Moozlems?
Not until Soviet-nostalgic Putin and his circle of kleptocrat oligarchs are out of power and done dominating European energy/gas -- will Russia start acting adult and stop bullying their former Soviet and empire holdings. Not until they are gone will Russia stop using Iran, terrorists, and Syria to pester and toy with an Israel-centered Middle East order.
The Eastern Flank understands this. That's why they are our strongest allies and NATO's strongest supporters to this day. If the 1980s were about winning the "Cold War" -- then the era we're in now is about cementing and securing the freedoms of those east of the Iron Curtain, and it looks like Russia will be the last country to choose freedom.
Honestly if economic smarts are an indicator, China is likely to be more cooperative at this rate. Because they value their economic gains so much. But the key is how strong the younger of generation of Christians will be in shaping their culture.
Time to tie tariffs to Defense spending levels too.
If you are Germany you get to choose . . . spend a target amount on defense over and above the previous year or spend it on American imports. Their choice. If they’re smart they’ll buy planes from Lockheed, tanks from whoever, etc.
I don’t agree with your analysis of Russian actions. I think their behavior in both Georgia and the Ukraine is (mostly) justifiable (majority Russian culture populations that didn’t want corrupt / leftist government). I think their support of Iran is outrageous but so is our support of Saudi Arabia. There needs to be a united front against Islam.
There is definitely history between Russia and the former satellites that would be a challenge to overcome.
I watch a LOT of Putin’s speeches and I don’t see any nostalgia for the empire. He makes no secret that he wants Russia to be strong and independent, however, I don’t think that should be equated a desire to reconquer central and eastern Europe.
Poland doesn’t trust the Western Europeans. They have long memories. The Western Europeans are the ones after WWII that sold them down the drain to the Soviet Union in the first place.
Germany with their gas pipeline doesn’t care a wit about Poland, the Baltics, Czechoslovakia, Hungary etc...
The Europeans, east and west, do not hate Donald Trump.
In fact, in honor of his visit, European stock exchanges rose today by healthy margins: the French rose .97%, the German .61%, and the British .78%.
The Europeans must be as fed up with their economic-stagnation-producing Establishments as Americans were before they elected Donald Trump — who is a much more inspiring leader, a virtual rock star, compared to Angela Merkel and Theresa May who can barely keep their coalitions from collapsing.
We should move our military to Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, etc.
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