There’s a whole lot of historical ignorance among the Trump-right mouthpieces, who spout Putin-apologist takes. Here’s one of the most ignorant takes I’ve ever seen:
Trump unabashedly gushes over the strongmen thug type leaders in the world and has done this long before he got into politics. And Gaetz, being a Trump mouthpiece, set up a ridiculous, historically false strawman argument that I’ve heard various Trump pundit/mouthpieces assert. The argument goes that China is the real threat and Russia isn’t the problem – Ukraine is. Some variations on this Trumper crowd anti-Ukraine stance assert that by backing Ukraine, we’re pushing Russia and China closer together.
It helps to read some history, which seems something that Trump’s cadre of Congressional sycophants obviously haven’t done. The Trump Republican Party now sells selective rules they choose to follow and their own selective patriotic norms. There’s now an antiwar right, so self-absorbed and enmeshed in partisan politics that they no longer care about America writ large, unless it coincides with their own partisan political views. They refuse to accept that Biden won the election and are really no different than the #Resist Dems, who refused to accept Trump’s win in 2016 and refused to accept him as a legitimate president.
Let’s look at some history, starting with Soviet Russia post WWII, where Stalin rolled over Eastern Europe and seized control of what later became known as the Eastern bloc. Here’s an explanation from Britannica:
“The Eastern bloc originated at the end of World War II. At the 1945 Yalta Conference, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin pledged to hold free and fair democratic elections in eastern European countries that the Red Army had liberated. Rather than carrying out this promise, occupying Soviet forces supported takeovers by local communist parties and the restructuring of eastern European governments and economies according to the Stalinist model. The U.S.S.R. also facilitated the rise to power of former communist partisans in Albania and Yugoslavia, who quickly allied themselves with the Soviet Union.”
Trump and his segment of the right-wing media punditry have taken the position that Putin is the good guy, Ukraine is the bad guy and NATO is a force for evil in the world, that the US should abandon, even though the US was instrumental in the formation of NATO as a long-term investment in Western security, post WWII. We were purchasing long-term security insurance, not only for our European allies, but for ourselves too. NATO allowed America to grow and prosper and most of all it insured our vast American economic interests too. We benefited mightily from maintaining the NATO alliance. The Americans trashing NATO assuredly won’t like a world where the Russia/China alliance calls the shots in the world and we’re forced to grovel and appease them.
I saw the iron curtain in person and I served in West Germany during the Cold War era. The Soviet threat was real. I was also back in West Germany when the Soviet Union collapsed, the wall came down and Germany reunified. I believe firmly that NATO has been a net positive for American national security and worth the investment.
Next let’s move on to Gaetz setting up the strawman that China is the real bad guy and we’d be better allowing Putin’s Russia into NATO. First, it’s completely idiotic to suggest letting Russia into NATO, since NATO was started to check Soviet Russian aggression – the kind like we’ve just seen with Putin launching a full-scale invasion into Ukraine. Putin’s Russia has been actively working to destabilize Moldova too – same Russian blueprint for how the Eastern bloc came into being post WWII. Again the reason NATO was formed in the first place was to check Russian aggression.
Binary-thinking and arguments are what Trump lives and breathes. You’re either for him or against him. Every situation in Trump world pits Trump-followers on one side (the only good people) vs. the bad people. The political arguments Trump and his crowd of loyalists spread are in that same simplistic vein. A Republican can go from being great in Trump world, but the minute they get on Trump’s bad side, well, then they are cast out and a RINO or worse. Their reasoning is as wacky as the far-left, where you either jump on board their latest culture war push, use the new words they come up with, or you’re banished from the tribe.
Gaetz mentioned China’s military activities in Cuba as a rationale for China is a threat, not Russia. That’s ludicrous on its face. Russia and communist China’s close ties are long-standing, so nothing we do is going to push Russia and China closer together – they’ve been close allies since post WWII, when Mao led the Chinese Communist Revolution. Mao turned to Stalin for training, funds and arms to launch the Chinese Communist Revolution, after the Japanese were driven out of China. The US had some military advisors and troops in China, Burma, India during WWII. We helped the Chinese fight the Japanese. Imperialist Japan had invaded China in the 1930s:
“Conflict in Asia began well before the official start of World War II. Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. In 1939, the armies of Japan and the Soviet Union clashed in the area of the Khalkin Gol river in Manchuria. This battle lasted four months and resulted in a significant defeat for the Japanese.” – https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/invasion-manchuria
The US decided not to do much to aid the nationalist Chinese government to counter Mao’s revolution, while the Soviets were advising and arming Mao’s forces. After the communist takeover of China, the Soviets, over time, sent all sorts of advisors, assistance and support to China. There have been some rocky patches in Sino-Soviet relations over the years, but they remain close allies – regardless what we do and regardless what happens in Ukraine.
Gaetz mentioned China’s military activities in Cuba as a rationale for why China is a threat, not Russia. That’s also ludicrous on its face. The Russians have been in Cuba for decades too. The Russians operated the Lourdes SIGINT station in Cuba spying on the US. That station was shutdown in 2002, but in 2014, well, here’s a Business Insider report, Russia Is Reportedly Reopening Its Spy Base In Cuba :
“Russia and Cuba have agreed to reopen the signals intelligence (SIGINT) base in Lourdes, Cuba, which was primarily used to spy on the U.S., Russian business daily Kommersant reports.”
So, if Gaetz is so concerned about China in Cuba how does he feel about continuing Russian spy operations against the US in Cuba, which are obviously being coordinated with Russia’s close ally – CHINA. Gaetz and the entire Trump cadre of spin clowns should do some studying WWII and the Cold War, because this pacifist, apologist kind of idiocy just emboldens both China and Russia.
Russia and China have been close allies for decades and they will work together to undermine and damage America and American interests wherever they can. Again, we aren’t pushing Russia and China closer together – they have been working closely to undermine Western interests since the end of WWII.
It’s fine if you don’t want the US supporting Ukraine, but such ahistorical tripe as Gaetz peddled here left me feeling sad for the state of American education and leadership. A sitting US Congressman peddling allowing Russia into NATO dishonors all the Americans who stood firm and sacrificed so much during WWII and the Cold War to keep the Western world free.
libertybelle diaries 