I, for one, am glad to see SOME degree of cooperation between us and the Russians.
Before commenting further, anyone reading this has to know my background. My paternal grandfather was born in the southern Ukraine. Being Jewish, he and his family suffered a fair amount from anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, my great grandfather continued a water delivery business that his father had started, and expanded it considerably - at one point, he employed 50 or so people. He took excess money from that business and built 14 houses over time, renting them to families who needed housing. Then came the Revolution, and the Communists took everything from him, even forcing my great grandparents to take on 3 families in their own home. About 15 years later, my broke and largely broken great grandfather was deemed to be such a great threat to Stalin’s rule that he was dragged into an NKVD prison, and beaten so badly that he died shortly after being released (just like Otto Warmbier and his North Korean experience). Meanwhile the rest of the family, except my grandfather and one of his brothers, was stuck in the giant open-air prison called the Soviet Union for the duration.
So I have PLENTY of reason to absolutely DESPISE Russian and Communism. Nonetheless, I think that in looking at the interests of this country before my own biases, I can see very great potential rewards for merely talking about those interests that we and the Russians (no longer Communist) have (such as Islamic terrorism and the preservation of Western Civilization). To the extent that we can cooperate and build trust over time (and I’m under no illusions that it will be easy or fast - there’s a lot of water under the bridge), this allows for MORE cooperation and trust later. Perhaps, in a generation or so, we may even be allies - not allies of convenience, like during WW2 when Germany was a far greater and more immediate threat to both of us, than we were to each other. At the least, we’ll get to know each other better, understand each other better and thus be able to reduce tensions between us (always worthwhile when we have thousands of nukes on each side).
But we’ll never know unless we try with baby steps first - and this is what I believe that Trump is trying to do. I know that under Hillary, this wouldn’t have been possible, that tensions would have ratcheted upwards, which would have helped no one except defense contractors and the intelligence community (and, frankly, there’s enough else to keep them both plenty busy, considering China, Iran and the whole Arab terrorism thing).
Bravo to Trump and our intelligence services on this one. They’ve created a bunch of good will, and I expect that there will be more forthcoming from us, and a fair amount coming from the Russians. While I would be VERY careful with them, I think that it will lead to much better things over time.
Thank you for sharing your story about your family. It sounds horrific and yet another testimony to the evils of Communism and “progressive” thought.
I don’t know a whole lot about Russia, but I think we have a hard time understanding Russian attitudes in this nation and that’s why we always seem to step in it when dealing with them.
They have a long, long history that is complex and if we attempt to use our Western democratic notions as a filter, then we will never get them. That’s not being apologetic, by the way, as we have to stand strong for OUR beliefs and values; it’s just what we need to keep in mind if we want to know how to successfully relate to Russia.
IMHO.
I don’t have your extraordinary background; instead, I can trace my family back to the American Revolution on both sides. Indeed, my maternal grandmother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I was an ardent supporter of President Reagan and was and am a determined anti-communist. That being said, it looks to me like Putin is a Russian nationalist who’s also an absolutist in the tradition of many pre-Soviet Russian rulers. That makes him a sometimes adversary/sometimes ally, definitely a person with whom we should maintain a serious, adult relationship. That’s just what our PRESIDENT Trump is doing. Three cheers.