Donald Trump should apologize to the Khan family, and all the Gold Star families in America, for the loss of their son’s and daughter’s lives in a pointless and stupid war. He should pledge to the Khans, and all parents of American service men and women, that as President he will never follow such a disastrous path to futile war. The wars for democracy, human rights, and nation building are behind us. As President, Donald Trump will achieve peace through strength, and intelligent diplomacy.
As Trump himself has pointed out, NATO is obsolete, and the post war architecture of Europe needs to be redesigned. NATO is the embodiment of the Cold War doctrine of containment, devised by George Kennan in response to Soviet aggression in the post war period. But Kennan saw containment as a temporary strategy, to be replaced by a more permanent and less belligerent alignment of forces. But the French, in particular, resisted, insisting on the deployment of American combat forces in Europe in order to hold the Germans under control. Eisenhower supported NATO, but believed it would outlive its usefulness in ten years. When, in his farewell address, he warned of the danger of the military-industrial complex, he was telling us that peaceful coexistence was the proper American foreign policy in the long term. If we had won the Cold War on his watch, Eisenhower would have scratched NATO in a heartbeat.
A peaceful world begins with peace with Russia. Today Russia resembles Germany after World War I, except it’s armed with nuclear weapons. Like Germany, Russia has suffered a humiliating loss in competition with the United States. At the post war settlement in Versailles, all the major peoples of Europe were given a homeland, and the right to self determination. Thus, Poland became a nation state again for the first time since 1772. But there were just too many Germans who, if united, would naturally dominate Central Europe. So some were given to Czechoslovakia, others to Poland. Hitler wanted the Germans of Europe to be part of Germany, and started World War II to get them back.
With the breakup of the USSR a quarter century ago, tens of millions of ethnic Russians were stranded throughout the former Soviet Republics, most notably in Ukraine and the Baltics. Russia is in a demographic death spiral. World War II resulted in such a catastrophic loss of Russian lives that it has yet to recover. Those Russian soldiers died fighting the Nazis, and our feeling at the time was, better them than us. The entire world owes a debt to these heroic men, and their country.
Putin wants all the Russians he can get, and that’s his principle foreign policy goal. The United States should act as arbiter in this dispute between Russia and its neighbors, and when the results of the arbitration are implemented, all American combat forces should permanently be withdrawn from Europe. We would have greater leverage over the Russians as their friend and ally, rather than their enemy. Russia and Putin are no threat to Western Europe. Its military is overrated, and a united Europe is in no danger. Why, precisely, would the Russians invade Western Europe? To steal their gold?
But Russia isn’t authoritarian, and occasionally brutal in suppression of dissent? As it always has been. And as Nixon and Kissinger would say, so what? The most important American diplomatic success of the 20th Century, the opening to China in 1972, began with these words from Richard Nixon to Mao Tse-Tung. “What is important is not a nation’s internal political philosophy. What is important is its policy toward the rest of the world, and to us.” Call it realpolitik, or America First, or cold blooded nationalism, it’s how you stay out of unnecessary wars. And for America, in its splendid oceanic isolation, there’s very rarely a necessary one.
Russia and the United States should enter into a strategic partnership with Russia in the Middle East, with the clear understanding that the security of Israel is a paramount goal of American policy. Working together, Russia and America can rid the world of the scourge of Islamic terror. The Russians, with their immunity to media criticism, are particularly valuable allies in this tough and dirty business.
Vladimir Putin is determined to reunite Russia with its Christian Orthodox roots, and presents himself to the Russian people as a believer, making numerous pilgrimages to the holy places of the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia has been a Christian nation for a thousand years, since Vladimir Vladimirovich’s namesake, and possible forebear, St. Vladimir, or Vladimir the Great, decreed it. A monumental statue of the patron saint of Russia is due to be unveiled near the Kremlin. The statue depicts St. Vladimir with a giant cross in his right ahead, thrust aggressively aloft. Donald Trump should be there to mark the occasion.
The United States is on the verge of becoming, with Russia, one of the great energy exporting countries of the world. This represents yet another opportunity for America and Russia to work cooperatively. Eventually, Alaskan oil and gas will be exported to our friends in the Far East, Japan and South Korea in particular, strengthening our geopolitical ties to these important Pacific allies. An energy summit, of sorts, could be held in Kodiak, Alaska, home of the Russian Orthodox Church of America. Given his faith, Putin would be delighted to attend services at Kodiak’s beautiful Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church. His Alaskan co-religionists are mainly Aleuts, most of whom proudly bear Russian names. In speaking to them, Putin could speak to the people of America about his desire for peace between our two peoples. He could end by leading a prayer to Herman of Alaska, the patron saint of North America, a great man, a great Russian, and a saint.
[This article was rejected by the American Thinker since, in their view, it justifies Russian aggression.]
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