TRUMP & CRUZ: TOTALLY IGNORANT ABOUT THE US & NATO

…NATO forces at work in Europe

 

More examples of how big of a problem we would have with a Trump or Cruz president.

 

Probably one of the few positives of the Belgium terrorist bombing, if you can even say it’s “positive”, is that we get to see and hear how the current presidential candidates respond to the atrocities in Brussels.

 

And hearing their responses is exactly what we got. It also revealed a crucial divide among US presidential candidates about what this country must do to protect itself.

 

The first response from President Obama was appropriate when he responded with “The United States will do whatever is necessary to support our friend and ally Belgium.  We must be together, regardless of nationality or race or faith, in fighting against the scourge of terrorism.” That view was a view broadly shared by Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and Republican candidate, John Kasich.

 

But as expected, the responses from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were ridiculous……as usual.

 

Trump immediately called again for radical isolationism and to “close our borders from all Muslims,” and he questioned the value of US support for NATO allies such as Belgium.  "NATO is costing us a fortune," Trump said. "We're not reimbursed fairly for what we do."  (Actually, Trump has no clue what our NATO costs are.)

 

Trump’s GOP rival, Ted Cruz of course, rejected Mr. Trump’s position on NATO, but his answer to the Brussels attack was similar: He, too, stressed “securing the southern border” and curtailing all refu­gee flows.  However Cruz also wants to also have police or military patrols of all of America’s “Muslim neighborhoods.”

 

At no time since the outbreak of World War II has the US commitment to our European allies been an issue in a presidential campaign. 

 

The ridiculous position of Mr. Trump is magnified as most everyone knows that the Islamic State has targeted all Western democracies, including Israel and the Muslim Sunni states of the Middle East.  ISIL regards Belgians and Americans equally as enemies. Destroying that group cannot be done without fighting wherever their hidden cells appear.  That means in America, Europe, the Middle East, in Africa and even in cyberspace.

 

Closing the southern borders will provide no protection to any Americans if the terrorists are not dealt with elsewhere.

 

In addition, if all Americans and Europeans start treating all Muslims as if they are the enemy, we will immediately lose any support and help from the people that could be of the most help.

 

Trump keeps saying that the United States is no longer a rich country.  This man that wants to be president doesn’t seem to realize that this nation is far richer than it was when the original NATO alliance was set up in 1949.  He also doesn’t understand that the national debt as well as spending on defense today are lower than they were back then, as a portion of the nation’s economy.

 

In order to defeat the Islamic State without NATO’s help would vastly increase the costs on America, Great Britain, France and Germany.  There are other countries that also contribute to the war against the terrorist in Iraq and Syria, not to mention Turkey, our other important NATO member.  Donald Trump would not be able to pass a 12^th grade US history class on the importance of NATO, both from the past or for today.  It is agreed that today’s NATO needs to be updated for dealing with terrorist issues, not abandoning NATO.

 

In addition, Mr. Trump was being totally ignorant when he said that there was no advantage to having US foreign air bases.  As an example, without our bases in Turkey, the air campaigns in Iraq and Syria would be much more expensive and far less effective.

 

Trump is correct about NATO being an expense, but the answer is to get the other nations to pay more of their “fair share”, not to dismantle or leave NATO.  President Obama has been very vocal about what he calls the “free riders” in NATO, but even he doesn’t suggest “throwing the baby out with the bath water”.

 

Trump is always repeating, “Why are we always the one that’s leading?”  Well, when you are by far, the strongest nation in the world, whom else should lead?  And who else would you want to be the leader, Russia?

 

In the absence of American commitment and leadership, chaos like that in Brussels would soon cross highly fortified borders everywhere.

 

And as Hillary Clintons said, “How high would a wall have to be to keep terrorist out of the internet?”  This is an issue of globalized terror, building a border wall will not stop those that want to do harm to all Western democracies, especially with cyber attacks.

 

The next US president must accept that the NATO alliance will not function without US leadership.  This will inevitably mean a larger US role militarily and financially as well as politically.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016