The cold war is over, yes. We've had *peaceful* relations, yes. But in that particular region, Russia is the *furthest* thing from an ally. Turkey is an ally. Slovakia is an ally. Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania are allies. And all of these allies of the USA are deeply concerned about Russian expansionism in region, which you say has no impact on American interests.Originally Posted by handofthrawn
But I guess it's lost on you that, while kissing up to Putin, Trump has actually been decidedly unfriendly to America's actual allies, promising isolationist policies that will undermine both its own international alliances and international trade relationships. (This, of course, is why Putin likes Trump so much. As long as NATO stands united, it's unlikely that Russia will actual invade NATO countries. If there's reason to think that the US won't defend, say, Turkey - a position far more tactically significant than Crimea ever was - against a Russian invasion, then Putin won't think twice.
And this is the impact of words: I've seen some suggest that Trump's not ACTUALLY going to disband NATO, but he's just expressing a willingness to, in order to negotiate more favourable deals. The trouble is that it's exactly that willingness that will encourage Russia to apply pressure in the region - the belief that Trump deliberately perpetuated that the US is not going to concern itself with Black Sea conflict, which emboldens Russian aggression. It's not hard to imagine that ending up in Russian invasions of NATO neighbours. In which case, if Trump's telling the truth about disengaging from the region, prepare to see a new and more-powerful Soviet Union emerge from a bloody European war. And if Trump's lying, and actually does support the US allies against Russia, that could be even worse, because direct American intervention could well escalate to a nuclear scale.
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