Perhaps the timing of George H.W. Bush’s death last month was merciful. This way he didn’t have to see America lose the Cold War.
Bush presided over the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. But the triumph he and others earned with American blood and treasure over 71 years, defeating the Soviet Union and keeping its successor in check, has been squandered by President Trump in just two.
Trump’s unraveling of the post-war order accelerated this week when he announced a willy-nilly pullout from Syria, leaving in the lurch scores of allies who participated in the campaign against the Islamic State, throwing our Kurdish partners to the wolves, isolating Israel, and giving Russia and Iran free rein in the Middle East. Then word emerged that Trump is ordering another hasty withdrawal, from Afghanistan. Trump’s defense secretary, retired Gen. Jim Mattis, resigned in protest of the president’s estrangement of allies and emboldening of Russia and China.
The TV series “The Man in the High Castle” imagines a world in which Nazis won World War II. But we don’t need an alternative-history show to imagine a Soviet victory in the Cold War. We have Trump.
Mattis, in his memorable resignation letter (a bookend to George Kennan’s “long telegram” of 1946) wrote: “We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances. Because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”
Mattis spelled out the views of his that are apparently not “aligned” with Trump’s: “treating allies with respect,” believing in the 29 NATO democracies (Trump has repeatedly raised questions about NATO’s utility); respecting the 74-nation “defeat-ISIS coalition” (now to be abandoned in Syria); and recognizing threats from China and Russia, which “want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model ... at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies.”
Republicans now profess to be alarmed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has enabled Trump at every step, says he’s “particularly distressed.” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) sees “chaos.” But that is too little, too late. Turkey says it will postpone an invasion of Syria as U.S. forces leave — the better to “bury” our Kurdish allies. And Russian President Vladimir Putin exults: “American troops should not be in Syria and have been there illegally.”
Indeed, a Soviet leader hardly could have outlined a better scenario than Trump has created for Putin:
A rift between the United States and NATO allies over the future of the alliance.
A U.S. demand that Russia be returned to the Group of Seven , as Russia continues provocations in Ukraine.
A U.S. threat to pull out of the World Trade Organization, and a round of U.S.-imposed tariffs that severely weakened it.
A U.S. president abandoning human rights, accepting Saudi Arabia’s murder of a U.S.-based journalist and embracing repressive leaders around the globe.
A U.S. president creating a rift with Europe over Iran (the nuclear agreement) and climate change (the Paris accord).
A U.S. president embracing as “very honorable” North Korea’s brutal dictator without any tangible concessions on nuclear weapons.
A U.S.-launched trade war that, the Federal Reserve said this week, is partially responsible for cooling worldwide growth.
Camden Bennett
Lost confidence among Americans in elections, the Justice Department, the FBI, the courts and the free press.
And the loss of a bipartisan consensus against the Russian threat. Forty percent of Republicans called Russia an ally or friend in a Gallup poll, up from 22 percent in 2014.
Why has Trump squandered so much for so little? Maybe it’s because, during the 2016 campaign, Russia was privately negotiating a business deal in Moscow with him and releasing stolen documents that hurt his Democratic opponent. (Meanwhile, Trump was praising Putin and his campaign was softening the GOP platform on Russia.)
Whether special counsel Robert S. Mueller III concludes there was a quid pro quo, Putin clearly has benefited from Trump’s presidency.
In Helsinki, in front of the world, Trump accepted Putin’s word over that of U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump has chafed at aides’ insistence on Russia sanctions, and the few who could resist Trump’s pro-Putin instincts are gone: H.R. McMaster, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly and now Mattis.
Generations of Americans paid any price and bore any burden, from Berlin to Saigon to Havana. Now, 29 years after the wall fell, Trump is handing Moscow the Cold War victory it could never win.
Jackson Jackson
Do these juden really want us to buy that modern Russia is just a rebranded ussr?
Exactly. Modern bolshevism is already working its way into our government and we have done nothing to stop it
Jaxson Barnes
>America lost the cold war because Prlumpf >Brazil; a country full of hot bitches and niggers
Only one of these things is true user.
Carson Barnes
>soviet union collapses >communist russia is no more >somehow the cold war continues I'm not sure how this works. Weren't these the same people laughing at Mitt Romney when he said Russia was a threat? Does that mean that if Germany does a face-heel turn the Nazis have secretly been gassing jews for eighty years?
>defending the utility of NATO while acknowledging memberstate T*rkey is a geopolitical adversary on par with Russia
Based neocons.
Logan Howard
It was official in my mind.
Jaxon Sanders
The Ruskies are gonna use masterbation machines to jerk us to death, aren't they?
Wyatt Long
> Soviet Union collapses, the cold war is over. > United States continues cold war mentality to maintain order and justify globalism > Trump stops that. declares victory and comes home. > ??? > We lost the cold war.
Michael Lee
>Implying the soviets collapse wasnt the end of the cold war
Don't forget the rollercoaster of death in Auschwitz-..., I mean, Donbass.
Samuel Reyes
China & Russia is pushing and expanding totalitarianism worldwide. Democracies and totalitarian dictatorships cannot co-exist. You already see the Chinese trying to undermine Australia and Canada while committing large scale espionage against the US.
As for Russia (inb4 Kremlin shills talks about Russias benevolence), Trumps reluctance to honor NATO obligations gives them a golden opportunity. Russia is already engaging in low-intensity warfare in Ukraine, and disinformation warfare in the Baltics and Scandinavia. Heck, every household in Sweden recently received Cold War "How to prep for war" manuals, and every vital government employee has received their war-time placements. If Russia decides to roll into the Baltics, chances are Trump would sell them out.
A world where autocracy is on the march, is a world where democracy in the west is threatened. Today it's Australia and Estonia. Tomorrow it'll be US and the rest of Europe.
Oh yeah sure. "Local patriots" suddenly appear out of thin air armed with heavy weaponry, artillery and tanks. All properly organised, with a proper OOC and with uniforms. Sounds totally legit, it's totally not Russian equipment or troops.
Joshua Powell
>Citing an OP ed by a literal journalist. Wow it’s almost like fake news.
Parker Nelson
Doesn't matter if they support Russia doing it. Doubt they could afford the equipment anyway, so it's better if Russian special forces roll in.
James Ward
Stop promoting your own shitty article, Dana.
Anthony Edwards
Trump has repeatedly called NATO obsolute etc. Do you seriously believe the US would honor its commitment? Many in Europe don't. Hence why the Baltics and Sweden is gearing up for war while Germany + France move to consolidate their army.
Jayden Barnes
>Baltics and Sweden Russian clay!
Dominic Rodriguez
Damn my life is ruined, dick waving in the middle east was so important to me.
Cooper White
Imagine everyones shock to find out that Dana Milbank is a Jew!!! Imagine all our shocks!!!
Baltics say no. They're way better off independent and part of the EU. Standard of living is astronomically higher than in Russia. Rule of law exists, free press etc. What for right does the maffia state of Russia have to invade them?
Cameron Thomas
The whole world belongs to Russia.
Juan Martin
Womp,womp
Sage
Connor Gomez
>He didn't have to see America lose the cold war even though communists have been openly hawking their shit ideology in the country in academia and media for years -- and now that's acceptable
Maybe you guys should have had kids and not imported sandniggers. if you were so worried about Russia you should have also focused on building a strong military. Did you think we would do it for free forever?
Liam Turner
>Israel is isolated You clearly don’t get what we’re about here at pol
>muh Russia muh Russia >present to putin >America lost cold war Mattis is a kike and kikes are both seething and trembling. Obama was going to pull out of the middle east and the left applauded it, WAS, and didn't do shat. You lefty faggots marched and protested to bring the troops home. However, just because trump did it and CNN said "orange man bad", we are here with you seething.
Thomas Martin
>WE MUST SPEND BILLIONS TO DEFEND ISRAEL FROM SYRIA
BORDER FENCE TO SECURE YOUR SOUTHERN BORDER? OY VEY WHAT ANTI SEMITISM SHUT IT DOWN SHUT IT DOWN!
>YOU WILL LOSE THE COLD WAR IF YOU DONT STOP THEM FOR ISRAEL GOYIM!
I really don't understand this bullshit. Do they not realise how evil they sound?
>the entire soviet bloc is disestablished >more than half of warsaw pact members are now NATO members >only one nation on earth has both global and extraterrestrial force projection capacity >only one nation on earth is utterly uncontested in the conventional battlespace >'we lost the cold war officially' >t. crying schlepping jew buttmad we're getting out of the neocon charade of destroying most of the muslim world on behalf of israel >oy vey a bloo bloo bloo
Swedish TFR hovers around 2.0 IIRC, we're doing just fine in terms of babies. As for immigrants, what Americans don't realise is that the majority are from the EU. Poles, Yugoslav etc. We do have people from the Middle East, but they don't make up a majority of the immigrant population.
Also, we don't have blacks here the way you do. Just some 20k Somalis, so it's unusual to see someone black unless you live in one of the major cities.
Immigration has no bearing on the abysmal state of our military. It saw cuts becsuse war seemed very unlikely until recently.
Anyway, we're rearming right now. Limited conscription has been reintroduced.
Christopher Brooks
Retarded Brazil nut We lost the Cold War when the commies stopped McCarthy in the 1950s
Carson Robinson
Your country is projected to be 33% Muslim by 2030. How is that fine?
Gabriel Green
this is an extremely high-quality post.
Nathaniel Green
I could do A LOT, but I was not raised to be dumb
Charles Wright
> America lost the cold war because they're not defending Israel in the Middle East
The religious folks are those immigrating recently. Numbers of Muslim immigrants are dropping, especially with better European border control in the Mediterranean.
Unless our 500000ish Muslims (of whom roughly half actually practice their religion in some way) turn into 4 million Muslims in 12 years, the 33% figure is bullshit.
Luke Jenkins
does this nigger know the cold war was against COMMUNISM? they will say anything to promote >orange man bad
THE COLD WAR ENDED DECADES AGO YOU RETARDED FUCKS.
Liam Evans
About time Euro countries started paying for their defense. You should be thanking Trump for forcing your leaders to finally pull their fingers out and start taking their defense seriously.
Kevin Murphy
China & Russia are moving their goalposts forward. Keep shilling. I wonder what your excuse will be when Russian tanks roll into Estonia.
>It's Russian self-defence! We shouldn't provoke Russia! It really was Putins clay all along!
Adrian Collins
Estonia is 1/3 Russian, some Eastern parts are basically Russia
Levi Moore
Yeah we're gearing up for war, but we need more time. For the US to unilaterally disengage like that places us in grave danger. That's not how you treat your allies.
Xavier Roberts
And Russia can't make that type of claim on Swedish territory so u have nothing to worry about
Brayden Brooks
>For the US to unilaterally disengage like that places us in grave danger >The US disengaging from the Middle East places Sweden in grave danger Either you're retarded or you're a filthy kike shill. So which is it?
Hudson Baker
Fuck all the way off Sven and go save your people from Jamal's dick and hand grenade attacks, then come back and shine your glowing six pointed star signal.
Aiden Cooper
>We must do everything possible to advance an international order
kys kike
Asher Diaz
Austria speaks German, and so does parts of Switzerland. Does Germany have the right to invade and annex them?
Scania in southern Sweden speak a Danish-influenced dialect/language. Does Denmark have the right to invade and annex Scania?
We don't live in the fucking 19th century. Fuck, the Russians in Estonia want to remain a part of Estonia. Why? Cause Estonia is a high-tech first world country, unlike Russia where half the population lives in shitty commie blocs and copes with life using vodka.
Chase Howard
You aren't an ally. You are a parasite.
Gabriel Nelson
>Anyway, we're rearming right now. Limited conscription has been reintroduced.
Are you really expecting us to feel bad that you now have to provide for your own defense instead of relying on us to do it for you?
Fuck off you freeloading commie parasite
Dylan Phillips
>Democracies and totalitarian dictatorships cannot co-exist. Why? Why cant people who chose different styles of governance coexist if they dont try to force others into their view of what is right? The real answer is that there isnt a reason for this besides clahs of interests, and this has nothing to do with governance or anything else, only fight for who is going to be whos bitch
Kevin Ortiz
>implying they don't shit out 4-8 kids in a normal family.
Oliver Williams
If my neighbours house is burning, then it's my problem as well. Any Russian troops in the Baltics is a threat to our national security.
If the US is willing to ditch its allies like a pile of dung, what's stopping them from doing the same to us?
Eat shit Kremlin shill. Putin is a greater threat to our country than some suburb gangster brats. It's a typical tactic of the Kremlim shills, divide and conquer.
Jack Moore
>allies That implies some sort of mutually beneficial relationship
Thomas Morales
>We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values >recognizing threats from China and Russia, which “want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model At least the yanks are not pretending to be the good guys anymore.
Jeremiah Taylor
>If the US is willing to ditch its allies like a pile of dung, what's stopping them from doing the same to us?
What have any of them done for us lately? Why shouldn’t we just say “fuck off” and leave all of you ungrateful parasitic faggots to fend for yourselves? Why should we feel bad for you?
Caleb Cooper
Because it is obsolete and is a joke. Most NATO members hollowed out their militaries so they can free ride off of the United States and are absolutely livid that they're being called out for not even spending the minimum required amount on defense. Not to mention Germans don't even want our bases on their land anymore, so why the hell should we stay?
Caleb Ward
How much does the Kremlin pay you? Sure they're happy to have the US suddenly abandon their allies with no preparations beforehand.
Because dictatorships tend to engage in, you know, things like invading and annexing other countries. Crimea is Ukraine, just saying.
The first generation yes. The second generation has the Swedish standard birth rate. American pol fags can't do logic or reasoning that well.
Adam Baker
It's not just about speaking the language, both Estonia and Latvia are over 25% ethnic Russian who are used to living in the same country as other Russians (USSR)
Jacob Garcia
I don't even check anymore. I just assume it outright.
Ayden Morris
>If the US is willing to ditch its allies like a pile of dung, what's stopping them from doing the same to us?
There's no such thing as allies, just temporary partners. It's all about interests. Welcome to reality. Also them backstabbing the Kurds was predictable considering Turkey is a much more important and part of NATO. The media is trying to guilt-trip the US into staying in the Middle East because it benefits (((them))). In reality the US has no interests to defend the Kurds. Literally zero.
Tyler Jackson
Checked & Rekt
Carson Young
That doesn't matter a fuck. We don't live in the 19th century anymore, borders aren't drawn after ethnicity. If we would, then Russia would be carved up into 9-10 states as it is only 80% ethnically Russian.
Russia has no claim to Estonia. And the Russians in Estonia gain absolutely nothing from joining Russia. They're better off in Estonia and the EU, and they're smart enough to realise it.
Cooper White
Not really, because you're not taking into account average ages and fertility. Most of Europe is very old, and old people tend to die. You guys were set for a population decline long before the muslims started showing up. So your population is on the decline, and theirs is increasing. Makes it a lot easier for dramatic shifts to happen if the different demographics are trending in opposite directions.
Isaac Scott
>Crimea is Ukraine, just saying. It's not and it never will be. Deal with it, hohol.
>the Russians in Estonia want to remain a part of Estonia That doesn't really matter when, as you said, russian tanks start rolling into estonia.
>Russia has no claim to Estonia They have the only claim that matters, more guns and a desire for the territory.
Christian Reyes
Pre-Trump the US was the leader of the free world, and while it did shady stuff sometimes, it would always in a uncompromising way defend democracy. It inherently believed in it.
There's a difference between the US orderly withdrawing into isolationism, and the haphazard way Trump is doing it. The latter is actively undermining other fellow democracies.
Joshua Thomas
>If Russia decides to roll into the Baltics, chances are Trump would sell them out >chances Lmao, it's common knowledge the west, not just the USA, would do nothing. Maybe Poland would come, but that's it.
>Russia is already engaging in disinformation warfare So just like USA then.
>Perhaps the timing of George H.W. Bush’s death last month was merciful. that nazi should have been hung
Jaxson Bell
>Pre-Trump the US was the leader of the free world, and while it did shady stuff sometimes, it would always in a uncompromising way defend democracy. It inherently believed in it.
This is either trolling or shilling. Nobody in Europe would unironically say this shit.
Grayson Smith
Fucking THIS.
The shilling will only intensify once Syria starts to solidify under the Russians.
Gabriel Scott
>Pre-Trump the US was the leader of the free world, with the crumbling infrastructure and poverty levels of any third world nation
Jeremiah Bell
You don't really understand the dynamics here. The Muslims (mostly turks and bosniaks) who arrived here in the 1990's are not religious at all. It's mostly a cultural thing for them.
The only really Muslims are the Iraqis and the Palestinians. And they're no where close to constituting a Muslim majority, even in 20 years
Ethan Phillips
You overestimate ideology. We don’t send people to die to protect ideals, we send them to die to protect interests.
Sure, it would probably be better for the world if there was an orderly withdrawal with maps and slideshows and quarterly reports. But it’s better for us if we get out as soon as possible. I’m not really all that concerned about what’s best for the world anyways. Read your Thucydides, there are no fellow democracies, because fellowship exists among equals. We will do what we can, and you will suffer what you must.
Eli Jones
Sweden isn't even a NATO country, u are safe and have no obligation to fight Russia
William Wright
>Pre-Trump the US was the leader of the free world, and while it did shady stuff sometimes, it would always in a uncompromising way defend democracy. Then why do they support islamist monarchies like the one in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuweit, Bahrain, Jordan...? Try to be more suble, shill.
Elijah Stewart
Might makes right? Kremlin shills wouldn't say that if the EU got its act together to stomp Russia. You'd be up with your arms about how (((THEY))) are attacking Russia.
The US, even with its flaws, is one of the most robust and innovative economies in the world. Cheer up, you're way better off than you believe.
Bentley Bailey
Democracies like Syria and Afghanistan?
Liam Bell
But USSR is no more, how did USA lose the Cold War? The jew-ishness of this article.
Juan James
This kind of completely over the top hysteria is exactly why people don't take the media seriously anymore.
Christian Miller
Democracies like Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
Gabriel Butler
Ukraine is Russian soil though. Rightful.
Liam Miller
>REEEEEE AMERICAN PIG LEAVE YOU AREN'T WORLD POLICE >REEEEEE AMERICAN PIG WHERE YOU GOING, DEFEND MY COUNTRY FOR ME Yeah, nah, youre a cunt
Aiden Morgan
Check your birth rates and death rates for the native Swedish population and the Muslim population in Sweden. With some quick math you can extrapolate those figures out easily. You won’t like what you find out.
Christopher Howard
The US did yes.
But did the US actions undermine the very existence of the democratic Baltic states? No, not until now.
