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The New Useful Idiots
dickmorris.com ^ | 1/25/2022 | Dick Morris

Posted on 01/25/2022 1:13:58 PM PST by Signalman

Many conservatives these days are channeling Neville Chamberlain, the former UK Prime Minister whose failure to stand up to Hitler helped bring on World War II, often recycling the arguments for appeasement that he used to undermine British preparedness and hasten Nazi aggression.

Particularly among conservative cable commentators, the legacy of Ronald Reagan is being trashed by a new kind of isolationism. Largely spearheaded by Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, the case for letting Putin help himself to Ukraine is growing, shattering the national security consensus that has dominated the right for seventy years. At the same time, the modern “useful idiots” that have always enabled authoritarian regimes to sap the will and resolve of defenders of freedom are hard at work.

Here’s what they are saying:

1. “It’s not our fight.” This chyron, recently displayed on the TV screens of America, even on conservative news channels, is as misleading as it is dangerous. Did not Pearl Harbor and 9/11 teach us anything? Can any true conservative maintain that when Russia or China take another step to subjugate tens of millions of people, taking away their freedom, that this is somehow “not our fight?” Whether the challenge comes in Ukraine or in Taiwan, the battle is the same and the imperative for free nations to unite and stand up to repression is the same. The fifty million people whose human freedoms are in peril in Ukraine and the twenty-three million at risk in Taiwan do not want to fall under the sway of Moscow or Beijing and the US must stand with them.

2. “We don’t want another war.” No sane person can possibly advocate that the US battle Russian troops on their own border six thousand miles away. But those who cower before that specter are knowingly misleading us. Nobody is proposing anything of the sort. Economic sanctions and a US oil embargo against Russian petroleum and gas would be a significant blow to their economy. Russia sells the US about 25,000 barrels per month, making it the third largest source of foreign oil after Canada and Mexico. Cancelling the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a position embraced by the Germany foreign ministry and the EU (but not by Biden) would be the most effective thing we can do.

3. “Putin is right.” Some apologists for Putin even say that he is right to fear Ukrainian membership in NATO and liken it to what we would say if Mexico allied with Russia. But the comparison is specious. NATO is a purely defensive alliance, obliging its members to fight only if one of their number is invaded. We are not planning to invade Mexico, so a parallel treaty would never come into play. Remember that when Hitler marched into the Rhineland, shattering the Treaty of Versailles, Lord Lothian, the appeasement-minded UK ambassador to the US said that he had merely walked into “his own backyard.” Soon he was marching into France.

4. “Russia just wants to extend its sphere of influence.” To the diplomat, the Russian threat to Ukraine is a move on a global chessboard. But to fifty million freedom-loving Christians, it is a very personal threat: That their rights and liberties will be extinguished.

5. “Why worry about the Ukraine border when our own is being violated?” The argument that domestic priorities can blind us to a major erosion of American power is an old one, usually parroted by the left. But now conservatives have taken up the chorus. Defending global freedom and securing our own borders are hardly mutually exclusive.

6. “We must not be the policeman of the world”. Yes, but we do have to defend our vital national security interests and stopping Russian and Chinese aggression is paramount.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: dickmorris; morris; russia; tuckercarlson; ukraine
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To: Brian Griffin
Putin is patiently waiting for an excuse to take over some territory.

And what if he does. He doesn't want Poland, he knows he can't get it. I know many want to think he's just like Hitler in 1938, but he's not.

41 posted on 01/25/2022 1:44:32 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Signalman

We can’t afford to be the global policeman, sacrificing our dollars and soldiers, to put out every fire that starts.

But I do prefer the Trump/Reagan policy of peace through strength (make them think you’re crazy enough to nuke ‘em) to the Democrat strategy of projecting weakness (sanctions, appeasement).


42 posted on 01/25/2022 1:45:02 PM PST by BuchananBrigadeTrumpFan (If in doubt, it's probably sarcasm)
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To: Brian Griffin
Putin is patiently waiting for an excuse to take over some territory.

I think this is a high level game of cat and mouse and Putin is holding out for what he wants regarding Ukraine and NATO. A negotiating tactic.

43 posted on 01/25/2022 1:47:01 PM PST by 1Old Pro (Let's make crime illegal again!)
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To: Signalman

The krauts can prove they’re serious about this whole s***show by sending their own young people to defend the Guatemala of Europe from the Mexico of Europe. From their POV, the Russians occupying Ukraine will probably make the gas they’re addicted to even cheaper. And, what is it with krauts and gas, anyhow? Just sayin’...


44 posted on 01/25/2022 1:47:46 PM PST by Mr. Rabbit
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To: detch

<< Ukraine DOES NOT BELONG IN NATO. >>

Yup. And neither do we. NATO should’ve dissolved with the Warsaw Pact.


45 posted on 01/25/2022 1:48:21 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Signalman

It seems like the Ukrainian situation is an issue for the United Nations?


46 posted on 01/25/2022 1:50:04 PM PST by immadashell (New Planned Parenthood slogan: Black Babies’ Lives Don't Matter!c)
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To: immadashell

The UN only worries about screwing over Israel and dispensing gravy to muslims.


47 posted on 01/25/2022 1:51:38 PM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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To: z3n

“but his warnings were never treated as bluffs.”

actually, they were at first, but after Trump implemented every one of his warnings early on, but after that Trump’s warnings indeed were NEVER treated as bluffs ...


48 posted on 01/25/2022 1:52:51 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science ...)
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To: Signalman

Maybe Joe will call Putin’s mother a b**ch. That’ll teach him!


49 posted on 01/25/2022 1:54:47 PM PST by immadashell (New Planned Parenthood slogan: Black Babies’ Lives Don't Matter!c)
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To: Signalman

This guy was Bill Clinton’s campaign manager and is almost never right.

The one I gravitate to is: “Our bordrer is broken, so you want to patrol somebody else’s.”


50 posted on 01/25/2022 1:55:36 PM PST by Luke21
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To: Signalman

The Ukraine was purchased by the Russian Tsar from Turkey in 1783. As far as I know, it was never really a nation state before the Turks took it. It became a “republic” when the communist party thought it was to their advantage to appear to be made up of numerous “people’s republic’s.” But it remained in fact part of Russia (called the “Union Soviet socialist republics) until the fall of the communist regime in the early 1990s.

The Ukraine was definitely Russian for 200 years, almost as long as the United States has existed. I think we need a real good reason to poke our nose into this mess.

But somebody tell me how much money Hunter stands to lose if the Ukraine goes away, and tell me what they may have in dossiers on the Biden family. Maybe a lot of Americans should die protecting those interests?


51 posted on 01/25/2022 1:56:17 PM PST by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: TheConservator

Winners figure out how to win and then go to war.

Losers go to war and then try to figure out how to win.

Democrats go to war and then try to either protest and undermine the war effort or war profiteer … or both.


52 posted on 01/25/2022 1:56:45 PM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Leaning Right

“Back then France had a huge army on Germany’s border”

Little good that did ...


53 posted on 01/25/2022 2:07:48 PM PST by TexasGator (UF)
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To: Luke21

Our nation’s capitol is currently under enemy occupation.

Ukraine aid is insane aid.


54 posted on 01/25/2022 2:10:52 PM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: Signalman

I have never trusted Dick Morris and I never will. Once someone has switched sides, the next time is that much easier.


55 posted on 01/25/2022 2:12:15 PM PST by Spok (Who is Ray Epps?)
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To: cgbg

Short and to the point. We are ruled by lunatics.


56 posted on 01/25/2022 2:23:30 PM PST by Luke21
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To: Signalman
NATO is a purely defensive alliance ...

Tell that to Serbia. (1999)

Tell that to Libya. (2011)

57 posted on 01/25/2022 2:29:31 PM PST by Angelino97
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To: Signalman

I’m not saying ANY of that morris!

I’m saying that we just got finished with a HUMILIATING tuck tail out of Afghanistan because of the dumbass in the whitehouse. And I dont want to send 9000 troops into the Ukraine to face down 100,000 russians like cannon fodder. And I don’t trust the motives of this administration while they’re covering up the BRIBERY and CORRUPTION involving the ukrainian government. And also within a year or two Biden’s going to be carted off in a wheel chair leaving the whitehouse in the hands of the Harry Kamel. She’s going to get a Bishon and start making mistakes with the troops that are there.

There’s No Way i trust this clown car in the whitehouse with the lives of our american troops.


58 posted on 01/25/2022 2:34:33 PM PST by Samurai_Jack (This is not about hypocrisy, this is about hierarchy!)
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To: Signalman

Toe Sucker can go pound sand!


59 posted on 01/25/2022 2:57:32 PM PST by sauropod (Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. Life is risk, your highness.)
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To: Jan_Sobieski

Dick Morris lecturing the world on military policy is like getting legal advice from Jeff “Mr Hand” Toobin.


60 posted on 01/25/2022 3:02:43 PM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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