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"I have said this many times before. The road is littered with the bodies of those who under-estimated Donald Trump. He is dumb like a fox, and is always playing four dimensional chess while most others are only playing checkers."
The big shocker on today's meeting (summit?) between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was - nothing. Nada. Everything went just as predicted. Trump played mostly good cop, as he was trying to establish a relationship with this very powerful adversary. Putin, the cagey old KGB officer, was not going to admit to anything, and still be nice to this fairly new President. The un-loyal opposition sitting at home were wetting their collective panties, fearing that Trump was going to get played.
Trump is a negotiator. I was one for decades. A winning strategy is always to get to know the person on the other side of the table before business is discussed. Once again, first the relationship, and then the business. We had crap for a relationship under Obama. In fact, I think Putin almost got tired of kicking sand in Obama's face. Strong men like dealing with strong men.
I am however embarrassed in how our lap dog media who came with on this trip operated. Trump is used to them, and has dismissed them. Putin had a chance to see this group of goof balls up close and personal. It was stunning to see how insipid some of the questions were. One towards the end was so very stupid, that Putin started laughing before he answered it. The only problem is, the question was not intended to be funny.
Where do we go from here? First off, Putin understands the long game. That is why under Obama, when Barrack wanted to be the new Woodrow Wilson, Putin went to down on his weapons. It is no accident that he now has an (alleged) hyper-sonic missile, he could not wait to tell the world, as well as our new President. In fact, Putin had a video made of Florida (home of Mara Lago) being hit numerous times.
Guess what? Trump is a long game guy also. He swallowed a bitter pill in this last budget to get the necessary funding to rebuild the military. Trump knows what we have and what Russia has. He also knows that Reagan's "Peace through strength" was a winner, whereas Obama's "lead from behind" was a loser. He knows we will have parity or better with Russia in the near future. He also knows that chance favors the prepared mind.
I have said this many times before. The road is littered with the bodies of those who under-estimated Donald Trump. He is dumb like a fox, and is always playing four dimensional chess while most others are only playing checkers. In the long run, we will do just fine with Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.
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ReplyDeleteCan't comment on the Finland Summit without vomiting in my mouth, so I'll comment on the military.
The additional money will help the Navy buy 14 new ships. The Air Force is getting 90 of its most advanced fighter jets, the F-35. The Army will receive dozens of new helicopters. Across the military, troops will get a 2.4 percent pay hike.
The risk with such a large increase in the defense budget is that policy makers will be reluctant to make hard choices,”
DoD is still in desperate need of reform in many areas. It has 19 percent excess capacity in U.S. bases, a personnel system stuck in the 1950s, and scores of legacy weapons that need to be retired. If reforms aren’t made in these areas, the military will just get fatter, not stronger.
Add in the fact that all we fight are asymmetrical wars, buying a bunch of ships and planes doesn't make any sense.
Only if we were to fight Russia or China would these expenditures pay dividends. And the President seems to be mitigating those odds with his diplomatic efforts.
Take all the money and buy facial recognition exploding drones that cost 2K and a bunch of kids in North Dakota can fight our wars for us.