The US/Russian relationship has long been strained and tedious to navigate. Historically, American Presidents have spoken out condemning Soviet/Russian aggression from occurrence to occurrence. Stern, even harsh words and actions have been stated/taken by US leaders ever since the rise of the Soviet Union. Well, at least until now anyway.
“Now all of us deplore this vast military spending. Yet, in the face of the Soviet attitude, we realize its necessity. Whatever the cost, America will keep itself secure. But in the process we must not, by our own hand, destroy or distort the American system. This we could do by useless overspending. I know one sure way to overspend. That is by overindulging sentimental attachments to outmoded military machines and concepts.”
Eisenhower
We have no wish to war with the Soviet Union–for we are a peaceful people who desire to live in peace with all other peoples. But it is difficult to settle or even discuss these problems in an atmosphere of intimidation.
JFK
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
Reagan
“Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper… We could use that on our southern border.”
Trump
That’s right. Embattled criminal defendant and disgraced former President Donald J. Trump has taken the unprecedented action of praising Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, even calling it “genius”. Furthermore, he has expressed interest in performing such internationally illegal activities himself should he successfully circumnavigate numerous suits and prosecutions to somehow get another sniff of power.
Even more disturbing is the trend of Trump sycophants following suit. Whether FOX “News” personalities or actual elected officials, there is praise coming from the right for Putin’s reprehensible actions.
How did we get here? How did the “hawkish” party of Reagan go from a stark demand that Gorbachev tear down the wall to a completely flummoxing rant praising, admiring, and encouraging Putin’s behavior?
Why did Jared try to establish a back channel for unsecure communications between Trump and Putin??
What kind of dystopian nightmare might we be living through had Trump’s insurrection/failed coup on January 6th succeeded??
We here at IDGAFCO are non-partisan, but very observant and quite concerned. Additionally, we find it a little odd that some on the right are trying to have it both ways. Well, which is it? Is Putin a genius, or is Biden weak? There are assertions that this invasion is “due to Biden’s weakness” when his predecessor in the position spent his entire solitary term sucking up to, encouraging, and man-crushing on Putin. It is well beyond laughable that things would somehow be harder on Russia had DJT somehow remained in office.
Let’s be perfectly honest here. If January 6th’s failed coup had succeeded, we’d likely have boots on the ground in Ukraine in support of Putin and his hostile aggression. Let there be no doubt about it.
Please do not allow yourself to be gas-lit by far-right media, failed former Presidents/current criminal and civil defendants, or their grifter families. Monitoring social media, a trend of rare silence from once hard-right proponents now questioning their own allegiances and desperately trying to reconcile the words of Reagan with the words/actions of Trump. It appears many are either embarrassed or disgusted enough to rethink their positions. Still more will likely dig in, motivated by whatever it is that motivates them.
We here at IDGAFCO believe it is appropriate to breathe a collective national sigh of relief that the coup failed as did the person motivating it. This is a good time to have an adult in office.
For those of you still in denial, the rest of us are enjoying your current silence as you are now unable to claim to be hawkish or to have appropriately condemned the actions of a madman dictator and his hostile regime. Anyone remaining in support of DJT at this point is basically complicit or incapable of better decision-making (Being generous on latter).
