Tag: Russia

Real Diplomacy

The one president in my lifetime to show any real diplomacy was Nixon. Nixon faced a terrifying coalition in the Soviet Union and communist China. There was tremendous anti-communist sentiment in the country, but, despite this, Nixon came up with a strategy to weaken this dangerous coalition vis-a-vis the US.

To everyone’s surprise, he made a personal trip to China to assuage the communist Chinese leadership. This was real diplomacy because it was eminently in US interest to weaken that dangerous coalition, even to the point of making peace with your ideological enemy — here the Chinese communist party.

Fast forward to the situation today: surprisingly, Trump faces the exact same dangerous coalition. The proxy war in Ukraine, waged by the US/Nato, has driven the Russians into the arms of the Chinese, even though Russia is no longer a communist country, but in fact one that holds elections and is predominantly Christian.

Trump should take a page from Nixon’s playbook in order to weaken this same dangerous coalition. That would be real diplomacy a second time by a president in my lifetime. But instead of rapprochement with China, it should be with Russia.

There are many reasons why such a rapprochement with Russia makes total sense in terms of real US interest. For one, Russia is chock full of nuclear missiles aimed at us. Such a rapprochement would vastly reduce this risk. Secondly, Russia is a country rich in natural resources, so there would be enormous opportunities for US companies to mutually benefit from economic development in this country. Finally, as mentioned, Russia does hold elections and is predominantly Christian, so this country is ideologically compatible with our political regime.

Will Trump have the stones to do what Nixon did and do some real diplomacy here? It obvious what he should do. Cut off all military and political support for Ukraine, forcing a settlement of the proxy war on Russian terms. Dropping all sanctions, particularly with regard to Russian oil. Perhaps a minerals deal with Russia, like the one with Ukraine, and discussion concerning American assistance in developing Russia’s oil and natural gas resources. A personal trip to Moscow, just like Nixon did with China.

Trump’s Tariffs

Crimea

If you look up the demographics of Crimea, you’ll discover that 65.3% of the population is Russian and only 15.7% Ukrainian (based on the 2014 census) — those are the facts.  Russians outnumber Ukrainians over 4 to 1.  Yet the Russia-bating press in the US keeps calling the referendum held in the Crimea, which voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia, illegitimate and somehow manipulated.  Actually, given the demographics, it is hard to see how the referendum could have produced any other result.

Furthermore, that Crimea and the Ukraine were ever joined in the first place does not have much history behind it.  It was an afterthought of Khrushchev that stuck the two areas together (originally the Soviets had the Crimea as a separate entity).  On the other hand, there is a lot of history tying the Crimea to Russia, going back to 1783 when the Ottoman Empire ceded it to Russia, that is, roughly 150 years ago (i.e., just a few years after the United States itself became a country in 1776).

Based on the current demographics of Crimea, with a huge Russian majority as stated above, it would actually be undemocratic if Crimea remained a part of the Ukraine instead of rejoining Russia. But the US media would have us believe this Crimea situation was nothing more than outrageous Russian “aggression”.  I disagree.  What it tells me is that because of the anti-Russia hysteria in the US, the US cannot bring itself to recognize a democratic process (the Crimea referendum) when it sees one.

Demographics of Crimea

North Korea — What to Expect

European Union (EU) and Tariffs

Nuclear Winter

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