Actually, it would be equally bad all around. See, IMO, the most
significant political event of my lifetime was Reagan's defeat of the
USSR, culminating with the dismantling of communism in Europe in 1990.
Before then, Russia was our mortal enemy. But, what's the point of that
great victory, arguably even bigger than the victory over Germany and
Japan in WW2, if we just end up being enemies with Russia again?
So no, I don't view Russia as a "hostile" foreign power, and haven't
since 1990/1991. And IMO, despite some bad behavior on their part, the
worst being the seizure of the Crimean part of the Ukraine, they haven't
done anything to the USA to merit treating them like a pariah. To me,
one of the biggest foreign policy blunders of both the Bush Jr. and
Obama administrations was being too harsh on Russia, driving them away
from us. And one of the appealing things about Trump to me was his
attitude of fostering better relations with Russia, including the
lifting of sanctions.
Now, does that mean that the USA should not be wary of Putin and Russia?
Of course not. We should be monitoring them 24/7 for any acts that
threaten the USA, including acts against our NATO partners, which are
equal to attacks on ourselves. But we can be vigilant about Putin
without being relentlessly negative. Obama really, really bungled our
relations with Russia, and Trump needs to repair that.
>Don't you understand that the Russians had Kushner in the bag after this? They could blackmail him at will. Tell us >about the new >airforce plane - or we will tell the NYT about our meeting. > Make your dad lift the sanctions against >us - or we will give a
transcript of >the meeting to CNN.
Yeah sure, that would work. Kushner would just say "go ahead and do
that, and I'll deny anything of substance was said in the meeting. Heck,
I'll just say your transcript is a fabrication, you're making shit up
because you're pissed that we're not lifting sanctions. And I'll reveal
to CNN and the NY Times - not to mention the NSA and the CIA and the
FBI- that you just threatened me that way."
Yeah, that would advance Russians interests vis-a-vis the USA now,
wouldn't it?
Wake me up when evidence emerges that anyone on the Trump side promised
a quid-pro-quo *against USA interests* with Russia for their 'meddling'.
Good Lord, you've really fallen hard for this, haven't you?