Hands up if you think certain Americans, i.e. politicians, need to get over their spy vs. spy mentality about the Russians.
No doubt, there are many political and economic reasons for some to keep the idea of a Cold War afloat. After all, there’s money to be made by investors in the arms industry. Yes, there are myriad reasons for some politicians to portray the Russians as primary antagonists of the world.
But the latest episode by certain insiders and media types and, of course, Democrats to suggest Trump somehow betrayed the nation by talking about terrorism and airline flight safety with Russian officials seems laughable to me. Does anyone honestly think the Russians will share the information with ISIS?
There are all sorts of legitimate reasons to condemn Donald Trump’s presidency. But this is not one of them.
Donald Trump is the first president to come along who doesn’t have a Cold War mentality when it comes to dealing with Russia. This should be viewed as a good thing, because the world needs to be reassured that the United States and Russia won’t start firing nukes at each other, and destroy the world in the process.
Thoughts?
— Jillian
Photo: President Donald J. Trump gives his acceptance speech on Jan. 20, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Source: Screengrab taken by Jillian Page)
Jillian Page 
In which nice and everyone is good fantasy World are you living?
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Care to expand on that comment?
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Would you think there is still any need to elaborate on this??
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I think the issues here really are less about Russia, and more about Trump’s judgement. The two major events out of the White House last week, firing the FBI director, and meeting with the Russian officials, both were turned into major controversies by Trump, himself, by shooting his mouth off. And, this was always a concern from back to the time when he started receiving national security briefings when he became the Republican nominee, about a year ago.
It’s been reported today that some allies of the U.S. are considering not sharing classified information with Trump, and perhaps anyone who might share it with him.
You’ve also got to wonder how those around Trump must now worry about how he may use sensitive information they give him. He keeps making controversies where they sure don’t need them, and then he undermines his staff’s attempts to minimize the damage with his egotistical statements and Twittering.
Of course, it was never a very good idea to have Trump meeting with the Russians right then, just a couple days after he fired the FBI director because he planned to expand the investigation of Russian interference in last year’s election.
As far as Russia, they’re not a Cold War adversary anymore, but, under Putin, they still are a modern adversary, and it’s questionable how much Trump appreciates that. And, Trump’s military build-up proposals are quite Cold War in mindset, which doesn’t have much to do with effectively countering the adversaries the U.S. faces today.
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Trump should make peace with Russia asap — in the same way that Canada and the U.S. are at peace with each other (NAFTA not withstanding).
I think he only made the military build-up proposals to satisfy his critics. In truth, I think he wants Americans to be able to do business with Russia the same way they do business with Canadians.
But too many Americans want to view the Russians as antagonists. They’re the bad guys, America the good guys. It’s all about the bottom line.
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