Stephen Cohen recently appeared on Democracy Now and discussed a number of topics, including Syria, Trump, and Russia. If the videos don’t appear for you, see here and here.
I'm as skeptical of the Putin sympathizers as I am the ones who think he's the new Hitler. Putin wants Trump to disband NATO and he no doubt hopes the EU will split. United Europe can easily stand up to Putin, divided he could easily pick them off one by one.
Theres a reason why so many East European nations joined the EU and NATO as soon as they were eligible. They are all deathly afraid of Kremlin domination. If you don't think Putin is a bully and an expansionist you are delusional. Even Stephen Cohen in an interview I saw admitted that while largely reactionary to outside pressure, Putin is still an instigator in some circumstances.
He's leader of whats probably the most corrupt country in Europe(Belarus would be a close contender). So I get that in the political den of vipers that is Russia, Putin might be the "best" bad option the West has to deal with. The ultra-nationalists and the neofacists are pretty frightening. The modern communist party and other far left groups seem to be a bit softer.
To be clear, I don't want war with Russia, I don't think we need to keep expanding further west with NATO, I'm not even sure every dollar on guns and missiles spent to contain Russia are worth it. But we can't turn our back on Putin. That ex-KGB agent will have a knife plunged right in it.
Roth is a swamp creature. I'm glad that Cohen called out Krugman who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he only opposes hostilities with foreign countries and war rhetoric when... its in the mouth of a Republican president.
I'm as skeptical of the Putin sympathizers as I am the ones who think he's the new Hitler. Putin wants Trump to disband NATO and he no doubt hopes the EU will split. United Europe can easily stand up to Putin, divided he could easily pick them off one by one.
ReplyDeleteTheres a reason why so many East European nations joined the EU and NATO as soon as they were eligible. They are all deathly afraid of Kremlin domination. If you don't think Putin is a bully and an expansionist you are delusional. Even Stephen Cohen in an interview I saw admitted that while largely reactionary to outside pressure, Putin is still an instigator in some circumstances.
He's leader of whats probably the most corrupt country in Europe(Belarus would be a close contender). So I get that in the political den of vipers that is Russia, Putin might be the "best" bad option the West has to deal with. The ultra-nationalists and the neofacists are pretty frightening. The modern communist party and other far left groups seem to be a bit softer.
To be clear, I don't want war with Russia, I don't think we need to keep expanding further west with NATO, I'm not even sure every dollar on guns and missiles spent to contain Russia are worth it. But we can't turn our back on Putin. That ex-KGB agent will have a knife plunged right in it.
Ignoring the historical reasons for Eastern Europeans joining NATO? Yeah, not taking the rest of that seriously.
DeleteRoth is a swamp creature. I'm glad that Cohen called out Krugman who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he only opposes hostilities with foreign countries and war rhetoric when... its in the mouth of a Republican president.
ReplyDeleteWhat she says at the start of video 2 about the CIA is false. Some people claim unnamed CIA sources made statements. Not remotely the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThe Nation has a good piece on this. https://www.thenation.com/article/why-are-the-media-taking-the-cias-hacking-claims-at-face-value/
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