The Gallup poll says that pride in America has currently plummeted to a record low. Right now, only 42 percent of us are “extremely proud” of our country – and that’s no surprise, given the fact that we have a runaway pandemic, that unemployment is at its highest rate since the Great Depression, that racial polarization is evidenced in the streets, and that a game-show C-list celebrity in cahoots with a captive death cult party seems determined to make everything worse.
And that’s just on the home front.
Distracted as we are by the melodramas in our own backyard, it’s easy to forget that Trump continues to wound our national pride by debasing himself to his master in Moscow. Vladimir Putin’s unprecedented invasion of the ’16 election was designed to put Trump in office, and Trump is still working to return the favor. Look no further than the latest development, which has barely penetrated the news cycle.
Trump says he’s ordering a major military retreat – reducing our troop strength in Germany by more than 25 percent – a move that’s basically a gift-wrapped kiss to Russia.
Putin has long complained about the strong American military presence in Germany, because, as foreign policy scholars have long pointed out, he’s jonesing to expand Russia’s influence westward in Europe. A reduced American footprint would enable him fill the vacuum. Trump, of course, is only too happy to help.
Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, calls Trump’s move “a colossal mistake.” Mark Hertling, another former commander, says that Trump’s move plays right into Putin’s message that America is weak: “This (troop reduction announcement) is all in addition to Russia reinforcing the mantra that America is crumbling under the weight of internal violence.”
Indeed, Trump’s partial surrender is so egregious that even normally servile Republicans of Capitol Hill are daring to disagree with dear leader.
The other day, 22 GOP members of the House Armed Services Committee, led by Texas congressman Mac Thornberry, wrote a letter to Trump: “The threats posed by Russia have not lessened, and we believe that signs of a weakened U.S. commitment (in Germany) will encourage further Russian aggression and opportunism.”
Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s sole congressperson and the third-ranking House Republican, said: “America’s forward presence has never been more important than it is today, as our nation confronts the threats to freedom and security around the world posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia…Withdrawing our forces and abandoning our allies would have grave consequences, emboldening our adversaries, and making war more – not less – likely.”
The conservative Heritage Foundation said yesterday: “With all the security challenges along Europe’s periphery, and with a revisionist Russia threatening the U.S. and its NATO allies, American military capability in Europe should be increased, not reduced.”
It’s galling, of course, to hear Republicans and conservatives fume now about Trump’s subservience to Russia, given the fact that Russia’s influence was so obvious during the ’16 campaign.
And given the fact that Trump debased himself (and us) at the ’18 Helsinki summit, where he was asked whether he endorsed the U.S. intelligence consensus that Russia had invaded our election. With Putin at his elbow and the whole world watching, Trump replied: “(Putin) just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
And given the fact that Trump wants to invite Putin to the next G7 summit, even though Putin was kicked out of the G7 six years ago for his invasion of Crimea.
Yet now these Republicans are shocked that Trump wants to do Putin’s bidding in Germany? Hey, whatever. If their distaste for Trump is stoked by this latest sorry episode, that’s a welcome development that could help boost prospects for his ouster in November. So we’ll take it.
Remember the era when Republicans routinely painted Democrats as “soft on Russia”? How far they have traveled since. And that was arguably most evident when Trump delivered his speech at West Point. The worst moment was not when he needed two hands to drink a glass of water. The worst moment was when he said this:
“It is not the duty of U.S. troops to solve ancient conflicts in faraway lands that many people have never even heard of.”
Did that passage ring a bell? Because in 1938, a western leader said that western democracies should not concern themselves with “a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.”
Vladimir Putin has his very own Neville Chamberlain. Thanks a lot, Trump voters.