Politicians, mainstream news journalists and talking heads from both parties suffered massive panic attacks when President Trump not only met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also gave an amicable press conference with him.
The furor still has not died down as news outlets call the American president all sorts of names for simply sitting down with another world leader and having a friendly conversation with him. Even so, the president, seemingly unfazed by the fact that most mainstream politicians think that talking with the Russian president in a friendly manner is a disgraceful act of treason, has already announced that he hopes to meet with Putin for a second summit to discuss important matters that were not fully covered in Helsinki.
It appears the president is doubling down on his stance that talking to enemies is not a bad thing by formally inviting President Putin to the White House. The intended meeting would take place ahead of the mid-term elections, although no specific date has been set. Inviting the Russian president to the White House is not unprecedented, as Ronald Reagan hosted USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev there in 1987, and Bill Clinton invited former Russian president Boris Yeltsin to the White House in 1993. Even so, Putin has never been invited to the White House even though he has led the Russian Federation for close to 20 years.
The move to invite President Putin to the White House comes with far more significance than simply meeting on foreign soil, as official state visits are typically viewed as being the highest possible expression of friendly bilateral relations between two countries. Should Putin accept the invitation, his stay could likely include official public ceremonies such as a 21-gun salute, formal White House dinner and State Department luncheon.
Even more importantly, the next round of talks between Trump and Putin would include important topics that have a direct bearing on world peace and prosperity. Trump recently announced that could include stopping terrorism and cyber attacks, peace in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation, trade, and North Korea. While these topics were already covered during the first summit, the second summit would focus on finding ways to implement joint decisions on these matters.
It is also interesting to note that Russia’s current ambassador to the United States has recently reported that, at the first summit, Putin made specific proposals on how Russia and the United States could work together in Syria, and also agreed to work with President Trump to preserve the New START and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces agreements. Clearly, the dialogue is already bringing about positive results despite intense political opposition.
Ironically, experts and journalists in other countries who are looking at the summit in a non-partisan light have called out the American media and U.S politicians for their shameless politicized coverage.
As an article in the Asia Times accurately notes, Russia’s economy is smaller than that of South Korea, and the only reason that Russia carries a great deal of weight on the international stage is that the nation still has a large stock of nuclear weapons. While some in the nation may have attempted to influence the 2016 presidential elections, there is no way that Russia could have totally manipulated the elections to cause Hillary Clinton to lose and Donald Trump to win. Nonetheless, the levels of anti-Russia hysteria in Washington actually seem to be higher than they were during the Cold War.
The only reason that so many politicians from both sides of the aisle are so intent on sabotaging any sort of relationship that Donald Trump might want to build with Russia is that Russia has no interest in submitting to U.S. control when doing so does not suit its interests. Thankfully, many mainstream Americans are already seeing the anti-Russia hysteria for what it is, and are completely uninterested in the latest so-called “developments” in the phony “Russiagate” scandal.
~ Liberty Planet
