Russia has been violating the START treaty the last few years, so I find the idea of them "working with us" on possibly improving the treaty more than a little absurd, if that's included in whatever awful crap trump agreed to during that near 2 hour private meeting. Anyone interested in how Putin is violating it should google missiles and Kaliningrad.
I like the idea of improving START. I like the idea of Russia helping with N. Korea. But Russia has also been using their ships to load fuel in violation of agreed upon sanctions with N. Korea as well. In theory I have no problem with an American President working with them to correct those transgressions and improve conditions. I have no faith in Trump to be able to do that even if he wanted to. He hasn't gotten any verification of these guys for anything he's done yet. Even if he wasn't compromised by the Russians, he just isn't capable of negotiating anything at all meaningful.
FB, do you remember (this might be too far back for you) the INF treaty (intermediate-range nuclear forces) signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987? It was an important treaty that was the first to eliminate entire types of nuclear missiles with ranges between 500 and 5500 kilometers. You might recall hearing about the Pershing II missiles we deployed to Europe in response to Soviet nuclear tipped cruise and short/medium range missiles. When the Pershing II's were deployed, there were demonstrations in Europe and some here in the States against them, as they were seen, along with the Soviet missiles, to be the nuclear proliferation. I still have a political button against the Pershings in Dutch that I picked up over there in 1982. The reason I don't trust Putin and Russia at all on START is that they have been busy the last few years violating the INF treaty. Kaliningrad in a Russian enclave on the Baltic between the tiny Baltic NATO states and Poland. It used to be part of German East Prussia. Russia has deployed nuclear capable Iskander missiles there that they claim have a range below 500 kilometers. We say that they have a greater range than that. They also go against the spirit of the INF treaty. We've been complaining about them for 4 or 5 years now, and Russia has ignored us. I'm guessing that trump never brought them up and doesn't know anything about them. Those missiles are minutes away from Poland and Germany and shouldn't be there at all. I think you are assuming that anything agreed to by Putin might actually mean something. It doesn't, in my humble opinion. Putin is highly intelligent and a practiced liar. Mr. trump is simply a narcissistic, unstable and corrupt liar. It's hard to say who is the most dangerous.
I don't doubt that they influenced it anyway they could because it was in their interest to do so, but I can assure you that those in the demonstrations didn't need any encouragement from the Soviet Union, covert or otherwise. There was genuine anger among many that yet more nuclear weapons were being deployed on European soil. It was believed, with some justification, that the proliferation of short to middle range nuclear weapons with small warheads, including the neutron bomb, designed to kill more with radiation than the blast, "limiting" the damage, made a nuclear war in Europe more likely, not less. I agreed with them then and I still think they were right. The protests were as much against the "neutron bomb" as it was against the missiles. That it led to the INF treaty was a good result in the end, and that treaty is what Putin and Russia are violating now.
Never said otherwise. It's not that functionally different than the Russian bot festival we've been experiencing.
I bet Ukraine, a country that at one time had one of the largest nuclear weapon stockpiles in the world, wishes that they hadn't signed on to the NPT. Nuclear non-proliferation greatly benefits countries wishing to invade others. There's no chance Russia would have invaded Ukraine if they held on to those weapons.....or if they had just joined NATO. I guess the lesson here is that Ukraine was REALLY stupid.
I see this as harming instead of helping Trump. It could absolutely play with his core base, and those that deeply believe in the deep state (small # but they are out there; Deji is one of them I believe). This is all for Putin and Trump seem to be agreeing on the foolish belief that it would help him. The instant reaction to the press conference show that it back fired. The idea of handling over former US diplomat and other American who were critics of Putin is against a basic job of the POTUS - protecting Americans. Just entertaining this (as seen below in public press conf) is horrible. The press secretary was asked directly about this yesterday and didn't immediate react forcefully against it AFAIK, no one from this admin has spoken up forcefully against it. And so, with it being a possibility, it's already horrible now. If this actually happen.. when would it be that Trump would start sending *his* critics away for Putin to play with. And no, I cannot rule out that Trump wouldn't do it - as long as he has his base and if it's politically adv to the GOP, it is possible. So while I believe this is harming Trump now, if he does do this and can get away with it, it would then help him and the GOP by destroying their political critics. p.s. Putin sure hold a grudge. Very trump like (or the other way around).
I do remember some of the general talk about the INF that Reagan and Gorbachev signed. Trump never seems to get verification involved in any of the deals he talks about with foreign leaders, so any agreement he enters into or changes has a huge amount of disaster potential. Theoretically and with a competent leader I love the idea of improving the START treaty. But Putin isn't trustworthy. Verification would have to be included.
The beauty of meeting alone with Trump is that Putin can make any claim, vague or specific, about what he and Trump discussed and the world, knowing Trump is a compulsive liar, has to at least consider Putin may not be lying himself, though he is well-known for doing so. And given, Trump refuses to cross Putin, Trump isn't likely to strongly contradict Putin or state that a Putin made claim is false.
Lol. His air strikes were more tremendous... Obama was either a warmonger by greatly expanding the use of drone strikes/ supporting democratic movements in the Middle East or was too soft by letting ISIS fake territory and not being more invovled. Middle East is a no win situation.
