Mr. Trump's Dangerous Indifference to Russia - NYT Editorial Board

[DonViejo]

A rival foreign power launched an aggressive cyberattack on the United States, interfering with the 2016 presidential election and leaving every indication that it’s coming back for more — but President Trump doesn’t seem to care.

The unprecedented nature of Russia’s attack is getting lost in the swirling chaos of recent weeks, but it shouldn’t be. American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia took direct aim at the integrity of American democracy, and yet after almost five months in office, the commander in chief appears unconcerned with that threat to our national security. The only aspect of the Russia story that attracts his attention is the threat it poses to the perceived legitimacy of his electoral win.

If not for the continuing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians — and whether Mr. Trump himself has obstructed that investigation — the president’s indifference would be front-page news.

So let’s take a moment to recall the sheer scope and audacity of the Russian efforts.

Under direct orders from President Vladimir Putin, hackers connected to Russian military intelligence broke into the email accounts of senior officials at the Democratic National Committee and of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. They passed tens of thousands of emails to the website WikiLeaks, which posted them throughout the last months of the campaign in an attempt to damage the Clinton campaign.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/opinion/mr-trumps-dangerous-indifference-to-russia.html

[dalton99a]

1. This is a must read.

Russia is indeed a global threat

[yurbud]

2. with one-sixth the military spending of ours?

Or are you going to resurrect the kamikaze bad guy like Saddam before the last Iraq War, who would nuke us with his one or handful of nukes solely for the honor of injuring us before we burned his country off the map?

Russia could inflict more damage on us with their nukes, but the end result for them would be the same as it would for Iraq, Iran, North Korea, or any other country with just a handful of nukes: human life would cease to exist in that country after our retaliation.

Do you think Putin is that stupid?

We're starting garbage fires right next door to Russia and calling Russia aggressive when they try to hose down the flames.

And if Russia really is a threat to us with such a smaller military budget, we should start spending a hell of a lot less too--just like we should have gotten rid of most of our nukes since Baby Bush said Saddam could blackmail the world with a softball size quantity of uranium.

Do we even want our foreign policy to "succeed" and do to a country with thousands of nuclear weapons what we have essentially done to Iraq, Libya, and now Syria, make them an anarchy run cesspools of chaos and death?

There are many things in the Democratic Party worth saving, but the kowtowing to the financial elite on a conflict that few average Americans want and even fewer would benefit from will drive voters away.

[Bucky]

3. Yeah, "indifference" - let's call it that