"Winston Churchill is credited with saying that America does the right
thing after exhausting the alternatives. Donald Trump has turned that
aphorism on its head. In the past 10 days, he has all but incinerated 80
years of postwar American leadership. Those who thought America was a
friend or ally, notably Ukraine and NATO, are dropping once safe
assumptions to cope with a world in which America is an unabashed
predator. Countries that were treated by Washington as adversaries,
notably Vladimir Putin’s Russia, are suddenly America’s friend.
"There
were hinge moments in history when the US displayed its character as
global leader, such as Dwight Eisenhower’s repudiation of Anglo-French
imperialism in the 1956 Suez crisis, or Ronald Reagan’s 1987 exhortation
to the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall. They defined the
world’s idea of America. Trump’s assertion this week that Ukraine 'should have never started' the war is the dark version of those. His
account of Russia being provoked to invade Ukraine came straight from
Putin’s talking points. So too was JD Vance’s Valentine’s Day speech in
Munich in which the US vice-president identified liberal democracy as
Europe’s real threat from within.
"These moments will live in infamy..." -- from an editorial in The Financial Times (London, excerpted in Hullaballoo). To America's everlasting shame, the convicted felon Malignant Fascist ("Agent Krasnov"?) and his corrupt, fascist cultists have forever changed the relationship between our longtime allies and ourselves, threatening peace and stability in Europe and around the globe. There have been two "hinge moments" in recent American history: when the Malignant Fascist was elected in 2016, ushering the first era of chaos and authoritarianism; and his re-election by tens of millions of childish idiots. Sic transit gloria, America.
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