US to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany in move that will cost billions and take years

Unconstitutional, but nice try Jr. Trumper.

 

Quid pro Quo and Influence was what I was referring to. When you say "Drug Cartels" are you referring to the illegal drug Gangs or the Big Pharma Oligopolies ?

If you answered "Big Pharma Oligopolies" - you would be getting warmer in an indirect way.

What I am referring to is Trumps biggest benefactors - His - and Ivanka's "Sugar Daddy" - way bigger foreign influence that Putinsky has ever mustered - orders of magnitude - like comparing a rain drop to a hurricane.

It was not Putin's foot Soldier that Trump - Quid pro Quo- appointed to Commerce Secretary - that would be "Sugardaddy"
It was not Putin that bailed Trump out of his bankruptcies - that would be "Sugardaddy"
It was not Putin's son that Ivanka was shagging - That would be the son of "Sugardaddy" - and if you know the name of the son - you know the name of the Father.

 

Early in his career as a criminal, he did money laundering for drug lords. I don't know anything abit him and Big Pharma.

When you mention bankruptcy, Putin funneled millions to him through Deutsche Bank. By that point, no other bank in the world would touch him with a 1,000 foot pole.

I must have read about the Kushner connection, but that was before he was elected, I've forgotten about it.

 

Probably because it works, unlike their history before NATO.

 

As stated in the previous posts

1) the answer to the identity of "Sugardaddy" is not "Russia" - this is the third time repeating this.
2) Putin's influence - by comparison to Sugar Daddy is roughly equal to a rain-drop in the midst of a hurricane.
3) It wasn't Putin that was a big player in bailing Trump out of his bankruptcies that was "Sugar Daddy"
4) It wasn't Putin's son that Ivanka was shagging .. that was Sugar Daddy's son
5) It wasn't Putin's foot soldier that was appointed commerce Secretary by Trump - that would be the food soldier of Sugar daddy.

So far your guesses are woefully bad. - and repeating the same bad guess over and over again will not get you closer to the correct answer.

 

2 world wars were started in Europe.

After we set up a complex web of alliances and economic arrangements, it has largely kept the peace on the continent for 70 years.

If it ain't broke... of course now that Trump broke it, we have to try and fix it.

That's the fate of Dems, y'know. Republicans make a mess, and we get to clean it up.

 

Pootin invaded the Crimea but has no plans for the Baltics or Ukraine that are European.....

 

No you aren't. The Germans have more to gain from working with the Russians than antagonizing them. The Europeans aren't going to make any significant effort to build an army capable of fighting off Russia sans the United States. At least not on Eastern European soil. The French will be strong enough to do it, but simply won't have enough reason to. And they won't have to. The power of the federal Russian state to be a leading martial power isn't long for this world.

Much of Europe will probably remain semi-united in a de facto hegemony of France, but the idea of a federal state spanning Europe is just impossible.

 

Wherever it is cheaper to station and maintain troops overseas might be a good place to station them.
Positioning troops where they will be quickly overrun, killed or captured shorty after a proximate enemy decides to attack is just common political/military folly.
How many times does military history have to repeat itself?

 

The peace was kept by the martial supremacy of the United States finding it necessary to counter a peer power in a far away land.

We no longer have a peer power. No single country threatens to dominate most of the Eurasian landmass. The United States will still put some effort into countering Russian power, but much less than before. And before too long, we're going to be more worried about the Germans and the French than the Russians.

Is this political theatre by Trump? Yep. Is it going to be reversed? No. This process was already underway.

 

How fast do you think Russian tanks can go? Poland is a very natural place for Americans troops to be stationed, especially since having troops in a foreign country gives that foreign country some hooks on you, and Poland is far less likely to use those hooks against us than Germany is. They need us. The Germans don't.

Forces in the Baltic will need to retreat to avoid being overrun. Forces in Poland probably will not.

EDIT: Wait, is your post in defense of the move made by Trump here? Seems odd. Having the bulk of troops in Germany definitely leans more towards a defense-in-depth strategy you seem to be advocating.

 

Trump managed to stop Putin from conquering Ukraine without using any US troops.
Shocking! Wasn't it?

 

If it is cheaper to maintain and train troops in Poland than in the US I would favor stationing them there - as far away from the Russian border as possible. Is the Bug still in Poland?

 

There was a reduction, as you observed, because Russia is no longer a superpower.

But that's quite different from Trump attacking and undermining our alliances.

 

Russia needs to "restore all of the Russian lands that were once part of its Empire" like it needs the Black Plague.
OTOH, that might be, for the most part, in the interest of the USA.

 

I don't put much stock in the German alliance. We just don't see eye to eye on the thing we used to: Russia. We're worried about Russian martial strength in Eastern Europe. The Germans worry about trade deals with Russia.

 

Trump had a lot to do with that.

Even if you ignore that, we will have a relationship with Germany, and repairing that relationship is important..

 

I don't think so. Even other Europeans are getting uncomfortable with how close Germany and Russia are getting.

I really don't think it's important at all. They were an important ally against Russia and a valuable logistical hub. But they're not afraid of Russia anymore. This makes them less likely to help in any significant way to deter Russia, and more likely to use their logistical hub status against us since they don't need us.

 

"Under the Insurrection Act of 1807, Congress delegated authority to the president to call the military during an insurrection or civil disturbance. Under one provision of the law, a president can use the military to suppress an insurrection at the request of a state government in order to protect states against “domestic violence.”

After the passage of the 14th Amendment, another provision was added to the Insurrection Act that allows the president to use the military without the consent of a state government to suppress any “insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”

 

After Trump and Merkel depart, we can start repairing the relationship.

It won't ever return to status quo ante, but there are several parts to our relationship that we need to build on. It would make no sense to simply walk away from Trump's wreckage.

 

You put alot of stock in individual politicians. The fact is that our alliance was predicated on mutual fear of Russia. After that, it was all momentum, but friction kills momentum, and friction is inevitable.

Did Trump speed things along by force of personality? Yeah. But this was already happening, and was going to accelerate.

 

That was intended for extreme situations.

Ain't that bad...

In addition, we depend a lot on traditions, and an arbitrarily overriding state and local authority, without a genuine emergency is an extreme departure from those traditions.

 

I'm old enough to have seen that relationship wax and wane.

And I have enough of an interest in diplomacy to know there is always another day.

 

You may be right. Billions of dollars in damage all across the country, crime at all-time high's, record murder rates "ain't that bad..." in the mind of some wild eyed anarchists they are looking for more.
TDS on full display.

 

Maybe, maybe not.
I think the courts would take a dim view of it without the buy in of the Governors.