Europe's level of participation in NATO

 President Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary of Defense Hegseth are uniformly critical of Europe's level of participation in NATO and the NATO countries are trying to get their heads around the vigor of the criticism that is presently coming their way from Washington. Now, we have Trump's decision to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine directly with Putin, without so much as a whisper to any of our European allies about what he has in mind. On top of all of that, the American President is gratuitously maligning the Ukrainian President publicly.

I advocate stopping this very dangerous, very ridiculous war, and have written to that effect since it started three years ago. I advocate bringing Russia back into the family of nations even though I see Putin as being a thug of the worst sort. Having said all of that, I do not like President Trump's unhelpful, over-simplified, ignorant, rhetoric regarding the start of the idiotic war, nor do I approve of his gratuitously maligning President Zelensky. I understand that he is in something of a hurry, but his haste is needlessly working against him. He is once again making enemies of friends needlessly and it will tarnish whatever positive results he will be able to achieve vis-a-vis the stupid war.

I presume that our President feels that he does not have time to pussy foot around, and he wants to cut to the core of all of the problems that afflict this country. The very magnitude of the effort is generating massive amounts of unease, not only here in this country but around the world. My guess is that Trump would agree with me and would argue that his actions are necessary to bring about the change that is required to reverse the trends that are destroying us. I argue that he could accomplish all of the things he wants to do without the extreme rhetoric, but I would have to accept that this particular individual probably can not help himself. He is built differently than the rest of us - for good and for not so good.

PS: All of this jabber is causing heightened concern and intensified hostility within the American public. That too adds to our problems internationally. The world sees a badly confused America in an increasingly dangerous environment. That situation tends to result in poor decisions everywhere we look. Trump badly needs a home run somewhere among the many problems that he is addressing if he is to restore some luster to his presidency in the near term. He has a lot of irons in the fire and that is very impressive, but he needs some obvious success somewhere to keep the support of a majority of the American public and reassure those foreigners that want to continue to believe in American leadership.

Ukraine wasn't invited.

 CNN quotes President Trump today talking about Zelensky's complaint that he is not being included in the negotiations between Russia and the United States to end the war in Ukraine. “Today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited,’” the president said, referring to Ukraine’s complaints that it’s not been allowed to take part in the opening talks in the nascent peace process. “Well, you been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal,”

This is classic Trump and is an example of one of my criticisms of our president. He over simplifies the situation and thus needlessly opens himself up to serious criticism. He is, of course, talking about the effort by some Ukrainians to sever their ties with Moscow and Putin's refusal to let that happen. Trump here appears to be of the opinion that Zelensky and those that think the same way that he does, overreached and provoked Putin needlessly.

It is necessary to understand the situation three years ago, if we are to understand where we are today. Zelensky was part of a group that wanted to create more distance between Kiev and Moscow. Putin decided to stage a coup and ordered a blitzkrieg that intended to take Kiev and force Zelenskyy out of office. Putin's military let him down by literally running out of gas on the way to Kiev. Biden jumped in and, over simplistically, provided just enough military support to stop the blitzkrieg and stymie the coup that was planned. Three years later we are where we are today and Trump is trying to stop the killing as well as the destruction of the world's economy.

I agree with Trump that Biden failed to deal with the situation adequately, and Zelenskyy, over the years, came to think that he could not only defeat the current Russian invasion, but could also reverse the earlier loss of Crimea and join NATO and the European Union to boot. The Biden Administration waffled and Western Europe salivated. Were I a Ukrainian I would almost certainly support Zelenskyy, but as an American, I support Trump in what is going to be, at best, a difficult negotiation. It is extremely frustrating to be dependent on biased, over-simplistic "news" reporting to assess the situation, made much worse by a president that oversimplifies, but that is where we are.

I have no idea how the theatrics surrounding the Trump/Putin deal that ends the current round of fighting will play out, but I do believe that the two men will come to some sort of agreement that will stop the fighting and the basic political situation inside Ukraine will remain split between the two factions - one aligned with Kiev and one with Moscow. This outcome will have serious reverberations within Western Europe and there will be much specifying, but little real change in the relationship between America and Europe. Troop levels will fluctuate, defense spending levels will wiggle, and there will be endless meetings, but, in the end, the basic alliance between Western Europe and America will remain exactly as it is now. Firm in theory and weak in practice.

No matter what our leaders tell us, there is no chance that Russia and America can go to war with one another without resorting to the use of nuclear weapons that will utterly destroy both of us. The only way that we can avoid mutual destruction is to somehow create more real understanding between us. I don't like Trump and I really don't like Putin, but I support the two men talking to each other. Those of us that do not understand this fact of life are living in an artificial world and their other worldliness will get us killed if we permit them to continue to dominate our political system. Oh, and everybody stop with the knee jerk repetition of today's talking points. They are embarrassing to those of us who want to be proud of our country.

 A friend complained that I had stopped posting to my blog.  I explained that I had reestablished my substantive posts on Facebook now that they permit substantive posting again.  He explained that he did not do Facebook.  Accordingly, I am going to try to post in both places - at least for a while.

Here is today's observation:

According to an article in NPR, Secretary of State Rubio said, in Saudi Arabia, yesterday, that “while Trump's plan for taking over Gaza surprised many, it is what's on the table for now.  What cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again, and wind up in the exact same place,  Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force."  That is about as clear as diplomatic speak ever gets.  Trump’s Gaza redevelopment proposal is designed to assist Riyadh in developing a plan for Gaza that is acceptable to Jerusalem and the Palestinian people.  The muscle that is being applied to Amman and Cairo is designed to support Riyadh’s formula, not the Trump plan..

The more interesting part of all of this for me is the motivation of American politicians and political activists in their statements regarding Gaza.  I can not believe that none of them can see what is behind Trump’s superficially unacceptable proposal.  I accept that they are stupid, but I do not believe that they are blind.  I conclude that their domestic political aspirations are more important than speaking the truth and that disturbs me even more than the war in Gaza because it illuminates the cancer that is destroying this country.  I excuse the political rank and file that have never been outside of their own very comfortable lives for not being able to see through diplomatic double-speak, but I can not extend that excuse to those that are paid to govern us, nor can I excuse the journalists that are supposed to explain these kinds of things to the American public in a truthful manner.

Please note that I am not here addressing the negotiations themselves.  I am instead using Gaza to illustrate the internal cancer that is at the root of our societal decline.  A decline that we refuse to accept our own part in bringing about.  Look around you and tell me if you see any two Americans discussing the situation in Gaza in other than partisan terms - including you.  The closest that comes to happening is one of us saying to another that Trump is out of his mind, while the rejoinder is “NO HE IS NOT!  Neither one of us even begin to try to think about why a Jew and an Arab might decide to live next to one another peacefully, nor what we might do to help them decide to do that.  Trump, on the other hand, has the Abraham Accords in his list of real accomplishments.  An accomplishment that no one before him has been able to bring about since the state of Israel was established at the close of the most recent world war.

I am not here saying that I think this ploy of his is going to work, but I give The Donald full credit for trying, and I am openly rooting for him to be successful.  I should also say that I continue to be pleasantly surprised by Rubio in his new role as Secretary of State and I wish him well in his pending discussions in Riyadh about Gaza and the war in Ukraine.  Before I conclude, I would also like to note the difference between Biden’s abortive attempt to brand the Saudi Crown Prince as a pariah and Trump’s effort to make him a central part of our foreign policy.  In this regard I would highlight the decision to make Riyadh the place where we start the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.  None of this is accidental folks.

PS:  I will not blame Rubio if he is unable to bring Lavrov along with us on Gaza.  I do not see that having any real possibility of happening until Trump and Putin decide the Ukraine issue, or at least announce to the rest of us what they have already decided.  Everybody agrees that things are moving very fast, but they may well may be moving even faster than we think.

The Biden Presidency.

 Forbes has an article out today that sites poll reports that rate the Biden presidency. The president did not fare well in the report except in working to improve gay rights. I usually view polls with skepticism, but I agree with this one. I see the Biden Presidency as being something of a disaster and rate him at the very bottom of all of the people who have occupied that office in the several centuries that our country has existed.  

His current effort to claim great successes during his time in office would be hilarious if we were watching a Broadway play, but we are not. There is a very real possibility that he actually believes what he is saying, but I find that to be hard to accept, even if his staff did shield him from reality and our press abdicate their responsibilities. I believe that he is, instead, a practiced charlatan that has long been permitted to get away with unacceptable performance of his civic duties. He played the good old boy extremely well and managed to carry it over into the presidency, but he ran out of gas in the process. Obama, who had observed him up close and personal for four long years, saw him for what he was, and tried to warn us by not supporting him as his successor, but we chose to ignore him.

Having said that, my greater criticism is of the society that aided and abetted the dumpster fire that was the Biden Presidency. Leaving the radical left aside, and accepting the failure of the press, far too many Americans failed to view our political situation critically, permitting their own personal needs and desires to dominate our thinking. We have now turned to Biden's political opposite for relief and we are going to flip flop once again in virtually every facet of public life. Some of us with glee and some with sincere trepidation.

I am an economic conservative and a social liberal. That ensures that no one agrees with me as to the ideal policy in virtually any political arena. I see the incoming administration as being a positive development overall, but believe that when it ends, we will still have leagues to go to get this country back on track. Hopefully Trump will oversee the transition that needs to take place in our military - changing it back from a squad of poorly supported Boy Scouts to a legion of well equipped, lethal killers. Hopefully he will also reduce inflation without further damaging our credit and manage to revitalize our manufacturing sector. I also support the effort to make government more efficient, even as I deplore some of the rhetoric surrounding that issue. And I expect him to champion much needed law and order in our streets.

My guess is that he will actually do some portion of what needs to be done. Much of America does not like him and can be counted on to continue to malign him fairly and unfairly, but, deep down, the majority of us actually understand that this country is a mess and something has got to be done before we destroy ourselves. The key to success over the long run depends entirely on you and me. Not Trump. Not Biden. Not some foreigner. You and me. We either face up to reality or we go under. Our call.

As for me, I don't care if you are black, white or purple. I don't care if you have a bank account or are stone broke. I don't care if you have a college degree or never set foot in a school in your life. I don't care if you are a man, a woman, or confused. I don't even care if you are an American or not. I advocate making all of our lives matter and honestly believe that is the absolute only way to make this world worth living in. For goodness sake, quit freaking out on our differences and focus a bit more on our similarities. Please.

Was Afghanistan the "right call?"

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that President Biden made the right strategic call to withdraw from Afghanistan three years ago and that history reflects well on that decision.  I vehemently disagree with Mr. Sullivan, but I am not surprised that he would say this.  Both he and his boss have to ignore the problems that have arisen since our withdrawal from Afghanistan and emphasize what they claim to be the benefits of the decision.  I find it particularly interesting that nowhere in this conversation is any concern for the Afghan people expressed by either Sullivan or Biden.

As I have noted in earlier articles, I directed the evacuation of Danang, which was, in my mind, the result of a similar failure of resolve on our part.  In my mind, we should not have tried to replace France in Southeast Asia, but once we did, we incurred significant responsibilities that we went on to ignore when it suited us.  When I asked the Bishop of Danang if he wanted to be evacuated, he said no, he would stay with his people.  He then went on to ask; 'if you were not going to stay, why did you ever come?  His words haunt me to this day.

Afghanistan appears to be an even greater tragedy than South Vietnam in that we did not adequately facilitate the evacuation of those that helped us try to restructure that blighted country.  In Vietnam we at least got most of those that cooperated with us out of country.  I personally sponsored 36 of them and am happy to say that they adapted to their new surroundings exceedingly well.

In addition to the human tragedy that few Americans feel important, our cowardice was blatantly obvious to the entire world - friend and foe alike.  The evacuation was not only a strategic mistake but a horrendous tactical error as well. We didn't even tell our European allies that were there with us that we were leaving Baghram in the dead of night.  In addition to all of that, China has managed to increase its influence in the country since our exit, further complicating the regional security situation.

No, Afghanistan was not a good call by Biden, but I fault you and me for not demanding a better international relations effort on the part of our government - no matter which politician sits in the White House.  Trump was set on selling the Afghan people out too.  He probably would have managed our tactical exit better, but we were, as a country, bent on abandoning Afghanistan.  "If you were not going to stay, why did you ever come?"

Greenland

 I confess to be very interested in President-elect Trump's reported desire to acquire Greenland.  I have never been there and know nothing about it, but apparently Trump believes it to be full of natural resources and strategically important.  I very much doubt that we would ever seriously consider taking it by force, as some seem to fear, but, assuming it is a potentially valuable acquisition, I would not be opposed to purchasing it.  Those currently expressing outrage at the very idea, forget that we bought Louisiana and Alaska and those purchases worked out pretty well.  In this context, I find it very interesting that Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said Friday that “Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic.”  the Prime Minister went on to say, ‘We are not for sale. But we are open for business. I think we ought to take him (Trump) at his word.”"  My guess is that, while all of the blather will inevitably confuse the situation, the new Trump Administration intends to increase our involvement in Greenlandic affairs, particularly as regards security and economics.  I am very open to the idea.

Nile, Mekong, Colorado Rivers...

 My father was career military.  I grew up with the pledge of allegiance in school in the morning.  I gave up a college deferment to join the army during the Korean War.  I spent most of my foreign service career fighting communism.  I do not believe that we should decide to try to change our sex, because we are unhappy with our emotions.  I feel perfectly comfortable defecating in just about any bathroom I can imagine - no matter the sign on the door, and I can definitely pee in back of the barn.  I am uncouth and out of touch with American society today.  You have to understand that I understand that fact of life.  

The man that I voted for in the last election has just been declared to be a convicted felon through the application of law-fare, and the msn that he is replacing got surprisingly wealthy, allegedly on a government salary.  I look around me and I see a government in disarray and a society that is coming unglued at the seams.  It depresses me, particularly because I feel helpless to do anything about it.  Society frowns on me because I fail to toe the current line.   People refuse to hear me - or anyone else that speaks honestly to substance, for that matter.  We are firmly siloed into our own fantasies and refuse to hear anything inconsistent with our personal fairy tale.  National decisions are not made by an informed public, they are made by shifting partisan majorities and they only last a couple of years, at best - no matter what they are, because none of them are well thought out and the great unwashed public, that periodically gives them validity, is mindless.

Los Angeles is burning and you and I are looking for ways to ensure that the blame falls on the other.  I hold that it is well past time to think about water more broadly.  Turkey is controlling the headwaters of the Euphrates and Ethiopia and China are both already changing the way water flows.  Both the Nile and the Mekong will never be the same again.  We have done the same with water from the Colorado all through the West and it is well past time to update and extend, repeat extend, our systems.  The basic problem is the mass of humanity demanding that water, but there are also severe distribution imbalances that must be addressed - not just for fire suppression, but literally for everything else, including basic food production.  What is happening to Los Angeles can happen to any of us and so can the malnutrition that is rampant in the Sahel.