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Richard Vigilante's avatar

Seconding Bill's comment below, the single biggest tragedy of American foreign policy in the last 30 years, even bigger than the middle east, was the failure to integrate Russia into the West, which Russia wanted and invited us to do. Trump might have at least ameliorated this ill had not Hillary faked the Russia collusion thing and the Democrats gone along making it politically impossible. Not impossible just because it would have opened Trump up to criticism but because the entire political establishment made hostility to Russia dogma. Because Dems refused from day one even to contemplate how Trump might actually do some good, they made improving relations with Russia essentially impossible and did terrible harm to their country. Republicans between Reagan and Trump were incompetent on foreign policy but Dems were cynical and wicked.

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William Otis's avatar

Trump was ridiculed (and worse) for his willingness to talk to Kim (I personally thought some of the criticism was justified. Talk is not going to work with Kim). And he was lambasted as (and criminally investigated for allegedly being) Putin's tool. Now that Putin has invaded the Ukraine, on Biden's watch, I guess talking with Putin has become a bad thing. Or a good thing. Honestly, you can't tell from one day to the next.

The whole show is just blatant political hypocrisy. Any component of foreign policy, like any other policy, is going to have some costs and some benefits. The Democrats/Zakaria will simply focus on the benefits when Biden is doing it, and pretend it was all costs when Trump was doing it. Why anyone would pay attention to people this thoroughly and shamelessly dishonest is a mystery to me.

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