Russia Trumped

Now this is kind of interesting:

Bottom line, Mr. Trump is promising better relations with Russia.

Now, NATO has expanded east since the end of the Cold War, in most cases unnecessarily so. I really never understood the point. I suppose an organization that is expanding is healthy. Many in NATO have no doubt considered that. Of course, The Roman Empire over-expanded and look how that turned out for them.

NATO is mostly a Euro-weanie organization now. In Afghanistan the Italians refused to do anything after hours, the Norwegians refused to leave their base at night, and the Germans were fat. Ironically, about the only NATO member that I would trust to stand up to Russia is Poland. Putin would piss himself laughing at the Germans.

Someone my age had 'Munich' hammered into his skull, but do we really care if Putin has the Crimea? I suppose that's like asking, 'do we really care if Saddam has Kuwait?'

Ukraine seems to be a corrupt cleptocracy with barely a military. How one can exist right next to Russia and not have a top flight military establishment is beyond me. The Poles are arming themselves, that's for sure.

I've thought for a while now that Putin is taking advantage of Obama's weakness to secure his western flank. Ukraine cowed, expanded influence in the Middle East, etc etc, He's got a yuuge problem. First Russia is a sick man with an aging population and low birthrate, deathbed demographics in M. Steyn's words. South Russia is Muslim with the accompanying bloody borders. Worse, in the east is China.

China has been preparing for war with the U.S. for some time. Call me an optimist but I don't think it will ever happen. Americans like Chinese, Chinese like Americans. We have strong cultural ties now, with millions of Chinese-Americans here- hundreds in my neighborhood alone. There is also the economic interest. 'Shooting customers, bad for business!' I image the military being told.

I know, the same arguments were made about Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

Now this is where it gets interesting. China claims large parts of Siberia, especially the Pacific Coast around Vladivostok. If a billion Chinese decide to walk over the border, is there really anything Putin can do about it?