Talking to him is recognising his government. Not congratulating him is implicitly demonstrating that the elections were dodgy.
You see, diplomacy often is dealing with subtlety and conveying meaning in different ways with different audiences. This is why often experienced, subtle individuals are chosen for this, not brash morons with cognitive decline.
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An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
If election weren't dodgy they wouldn't exist anymore
Then it is your fault. YOU chose and hired people to give you advice. If they ALL give the same advice and you don't follow it - well, either you chose the people that are bad advisors (your fault) or you refuse to follow good advice of the best minds you chose out of the 250 mln people (again your fault).
That's like saying "I don't need the spikes, if I weren't at this mid-level of the slippery slope, I'd be a splash of goo at the bottom..." and then sliding further downwards...
It would have been better if noone had congratulated him. At the very least it would somewhat undermine his supporters thinking that he commands respect all over the world and is therefore a suitable strong leader.
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"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
This is the old crazy idea. I respect my friends more than my enemies and even if not, someone I fear I want to get rid of, someone I respect as a friends or as a good example I want to support.
The fear-based approach is merely the last option for those who fail with the other approach....losers holding on to a straw with force...
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"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Not congratulating him is simply that. It doesn't mean we don't recognize his government. If Trump were a 'normal' politician and this were actually part of some scheme to try and change Russian behavior or get concessions from them I'd be all for a policy of 'detente'. Putin however is escalating his actions and those deserve to be condemned. Congratulating his election without bringing up any of the sticky issues like chemical weapons being used in the territory of our closest ally then it's a very suspicious incident.
I truly to wonder what Putin has on Trump. Did he kill a hooker when he was in Russia, do something pedophilic? Perhaps some gender blurring sex acts? Trumps complete and utter devotion to Putin is absolutely perplexing, merely being indebted to Russian financing can't have created such loyalty.
He's seems to have only signed on to the recent and limited sanctions because Congress voted in such a majority that they'd override his veto.
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"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
-Abraham Lincoln
Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.
McMaster is out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/u...mp-bolton.html
Ja mata, TosaInu. You will forever be remembered.
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Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming in France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A novel set before the war.
A Painted Shield of Honour - 1313. Templar Knights in France are in grave danger. Can they be saved?
$5 says we find ourselves in a war with North Korea or Iran by 2020. Bolton is as hawkish as hawkish gets.
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
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Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
John Bolton is going to a lot of people killed. I can feel my ulcer forming.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
Feels a kindred spirit in him. Both are bent on corroding norms and crossing red lines - Trump within his country, Putin - both within and without.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/o...tion%2Fopinion
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