{"id":55,"date":"2017-01-12T01:59:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T01:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/?p=55"},"modified":"2017-01-22T22:33:42","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T22:33:42","slug":"trump-and-the-putin-schmooze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/trump-and-the-putin-schmooze\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and the Putin Schmooze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-57\" src=\"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"trump_putin\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin-1024x731.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin.jpg 1180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Daniel Cloud, lecturer at Princeton University Center for Human Values\/Humanities Council, posits an interesting thesis at a blog post at Zero Hedge, after president elect Trump&#8217;s call to the leader of Taiwan. In &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2016-12-06\/trump%E2%80%99s-shot-across-china%E2%80%99s-bow\">Trump\u2019s Shot Across China\u2019s Bow<\/a>,&#8221; he articulates various times in history when miscommunications between nations have led to wars that would have otherwise been, possibly, prevented. The current &#8220;bromance&#8221; between Trump and Putin has caused some angst in national security and global circles. This is understandable.<\/p>\n<p>Setting aside the more complex issues of the recent energy and currency wars based in the decades long reign of the petro-dollar and the BRIC&#8217;s nations attempts to unseat that global financial hegemony, it is helpful to shed more light on what is more obvious to the casual observer.<\/p>\n<p>Both Trump and Clinton in the 2016 presidential debates made their foreign policy priorities clear. Hillary Clinton was very clear she was going to challenge Putin and his military adventurism (whether in the Ukraine and Crimea or the Middle East) by insisting on a &#8220;no fly&#8221; zone over Syria.\u00a0 This, a notion long time ago hobbled by hers and the outgoing Obama administration&#8217;s failure to act years ago in that country, would have put American NAVY and air force fighter jockeys in immediate direct conflict with the Russian and Syrian air forces. There already is a no-fly zone in Syria. It&#8217;s enforced by Russian air power, backed up by their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/articles\/russia-deploys-new-air-defense-missiles-in-syria\">S-300 air defense missile systems<\/a>. It would have been WWIII.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s foreign policy priorities are China and the South China sea. He was very adamant about it in the debates, and it is even more clear in his foreign policy priorities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donaldjtrump.com\/policies\/trade\">listed on his web site<\/a>. He has stated he supports Russia destroying ISIS, and we should let them do it.\u00a0 Daniel Cloud says that Trump&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/trumps-taiwan-phone-call-was-weeks-in-the-planning-say-people-who-were-involved\/2016\/12\/04\/f8be4b0c-ba4e-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.5c2aff2cd93d\" target=\"_blank\">phone call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen<\/a> was a clear warning shot across China&#8217;s bow concerning any repercussions on moves they might make in the future against that country, and how, historically, not doing so &#8211; being clear on our intentions and potential responses to scenarios like this &#8211; can only invite disaster.\u00a0 He is right, and I agree with other analysts who <a href=\"http:\/\/duckofminerva.com\/2016\/11\/wptpn-phil-arena.html\">presented the same theory<\/a>.\u00a0 Saddam Hussein&#8217;s invasion of Kuwait is a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Invasion_of_Kuwait#Iraqi.E2.80.93American_relations\">perfect example<\/a>. I remember that well.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the wrinkle: while Team Trump is gearing up to challenge &#8220;Chy-Na!&#8221; and their expansionism in the South China sea and currency manipulation in the years ahead, forecasting his position to the Chinese, he&#8217;s failing to maintain the same deterrence against Russia and her allies in the <em>immediate<\/em> future as they seek to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearworld.com\/articles\/2016\/01\/27\/the_new_hegemon_in_the_middle_east_111682.html\">expand their influence<\/a> throughout the Middle East.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span id=\"en-KJV-21436\" class=\"text Ezek-38-10\"><sup class=\"versenum\">10\u00a0<\/sup>Thus saith the Lord <span class=\"small-caps\">God<\/span>; <span style=\"color: black;\">It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"en-KJV-21437\" class=\"text Ezek-38-11\"><sup class=\"versenum\">11\u00a0<\/sup>And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates&#8230; (Ezekial 38:10-11)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The inevitable target in that scenario? The Bible teaches explicitly in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joelrosenberg.com\/ezekiel-38-39-faq\/\">Ezekial 38-39<\/a> that &#8220;in the latter days&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com\/2011\/05\/09\/what-is-the-war-of-gog-and-magog-part-one\/\">a coalition<\/a> from the North (Russia is now dug in, in Syria) will invade the &#8220;hills of Israel.&#8221; With the radical changes nationally and globally in energy and the currency wars and the withdrawal of <a href=\"http:\/\/globalguerrillas.typepad.com\/globalguerrillas\/2015\/02\/the-fracking-dividend.html\">America from the Middle East<\/a> as a priority because of our energy independence, Israel is in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jpost.com\/Middle-East\/Israel-wary-of-Russian-military-build-up-in-Syria-415586\">precarious position<\/a>, more than any time in their history.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-65 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin_billboard_Montenegro-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"trump_putin_billboard_montenegro\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin_billboard_Montenegro-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Trump_Putin_billboard_Montenegro.jpg 534w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A billboard poster has been placed on a busy road in the town of Danilovgrad by a shadowy pro-Russian and Serbian group called In4s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I understand perfectly Trump has vocalized unequivocal support for the Jewish nation. Nonetheless, dealing with an individual like Putin who has dominated national news headlines for a longtime now because of his aggressiveness and shrewdness, and the extremely morally ambiguous and compromised Trump, who as a businessman views everything on a cost\/benefit plane, the idea of the U.S. rushing in to defend Israel in an Ezekial 38-39 scenario is unfortunately based largely on a lot of sentimentalism and severely misplaced hope. Hope in Trump, not the Holy One of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>We are going to find out.<\/p>\n<p>Read more&#8230; &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2016-12-06\/trump%E2%80%99s-shot-across-china%E2%80%99s-bow\">Trump\u2019s Shot Across China\u2019s Bow.<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?o=1&amp;p=48&amp;l=ur1&amp;category=books&amp;banner=0HX1M2P8DDZ20D689R82&amp;f=ifr&amp;linkID=c5b898aafccbf76f9d26f25f19131ba5&amp;t=salemsmailbox&amp;tracking_id=salemsmailbox\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Cloud, lecturer at Princeton University Center for Human Values\/Humanities Council, posits an interesting thesis at a blog post at Zero Hedge, after president elect Trump&#8217;s call to the leader of Taiwan. In &#8220;Trump\u2019s Shot Across China\u2019s Bow,&#8221; he articulates various times in history when miscommunications between nations have led to wars that would have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/trump-and-the-putin-schmooze\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Trump and the Putin Schmooze&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,2,6,8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americanevangelicalism","category-energy","category-ezekial-38-39","category-israel","category-russia","category-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salemthesoldier.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}