Meeting Putin was necessary -- but hardly 'an honor' - WaPo Editorial Board

[DonViejo]

By Editorial Board July 7 at 7:42 PM

“IT’S AN honor to be with you,” President Trump told Russian President Vladi­mir Putin Friday as they met for the first time. No. Wrong. It is not an honor to sit down with the leader of a regime that invades peaceable neighbors, covertly interferes in the elections of democratic nations, and orchestrates and tolerates the assassination of domestic political opponents and journalists.

That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to meet. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the leaders ended two-plus hours of conversation, it is crucial for the world’s two major nuclear powers to engage with each other, as they did during the Cold War. “How do we live with one another? How do we work with one another?” Mr. Tillerson said. He said the two leaders spent much time on two specific areas where, at least in theory, cooperation could be mutually beneficial: the war in Syria and non-interference in future U.S. elections.

Whether cooperation with the Putin regime is possible in practice, in those or other areas, is less clear.

On the elections, Mr. Trump entered the talks in a weak position of his own devising. In a news conference Thursday, the U.S. president once again cast doubt on the fact of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, which U.S. intelligence agencies, and other politicians of both parties who have seen the evidence, do not doubt. He muddied the waters further on Friday morning with a bizarre tweet about John Podesta, campaign chairman for Mr. Trump’s 2016 Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton. According to Mr. Tillerson, the U.S. president then raised with Mr. Putin “the concerns of the American people” about Russia’s interference; let’s hope he made clear that they are his concerns as well, and that there will be consequences for that meddling.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-trump-putin-meeting-was-a-needed-first-step-for-the-worlds-major-nuclear-superpowers/2017/07/07/f92caafa-633d-11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.html

[WePurrsevere]

1. Of course Trump is 'honored'. He's honored to visit w/ his BFF & maker...

The one that has helped him get to where he is today and that doesn't even include the b.s. election interference and probable hacking.

I'm so ticked by the coverage on this. MSM saying they met for first time is bull...

Seriously... Trump went all 'fan boy' over Putin who is NOT our friend... and NOT even a decent human being.

[Igel]

2. First real meeting, it's how you start.

Do we really think that after talking about "reset" Obama met with Putin and said, "Okay, dickwad, here's what we want and if you think otherwise, bite me."

After all, by then Putin had orchestrated and tolerated the assassination of domestic political opponents and journalists, had invaded peaceable neighbors, and covertly interfered in the elections of democratic nations *and* tried to sabotage their economies.

Russia's not much different from in 2009. The difference is that we blame Russia for Trump. If Russia had backed HRC, we'd have some qualms (since Putin basically undid Obama politically, there's scant love for him). But if Russia had backed Obama in 2008, we'd have been happy to have his support. We deny it now, but now is now and then is then.

Russia's not much different from the USSR. Most of us still think Reagan's attitude towards Russia was bad. It's rather like Bush II's attitude towards Syria. Each was wrong in thinking them bad, but now we're right in thinking them bad, pretty much for all the same reasons. It's a difficult thing to pull off. I don't even try.

It's meeting 2 where you call Putin a pizdyak to his face and complain about all his khuyovshchina.