I await your response then to his apparent praise of (or at least reluctance to criticise) "just go out and kill whoever it takes" Duterte; getting oddly enthusiastic about Pakistan; and the man crush he has on Putin...
In any event: it's near impossible for everything to go wrong under any President; and some things that go right can be more by good fortune than good planning. (Reagan and the collapse of Soviet communism is an example of that, I reckon.) But with international diplomacy, Trump represents a dumb bull in a China shop that happens to be packed with nuclear weapons. It'll be a long, long time before I stop worrying about what this "Being There" presidency is going to be like.
Update: The New Yorker has a good article on the Taiwan call issue, indicating that it seems quite on the cards that Trump may have been played by Bolton and some of his other hangers on into taking the call. As it says, this is not a great sign:
Trump has also shown himself to be highly exploitable on subjects that he does not grasp. He is surrounding himself with ideologically committed advisers who will seek to use those opportunities when they can. We should expect similar moments of exploitation to come on issues that Trump will regard as esoteric, such as the Middle East, health care, immigration, and entitlements.
For a piece I published in September, about what Trump’s first term could look like, I spoke to a former Republican White House official whom Trump has consulted, who told me, “Honestly, the problem with Donald is he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.” It turns out that is half of the problem; the other half is that he has surrounded himself with people who know how much he doesn’t know. Since Election Day, Trump has largely avoided receiving intelligence briefings, either because he doesn’t think it’s important that he receive them or because he just doesn’t care about them. George W. Bush, in the first months of 2001, ignored warnings about Osama bin Laden. Only in our darkest imaginings can we wonder what warnings Trump is ignoring now.
9 comments:
are you suggesting Trump overthrow Duterte? What Duterte is doing is unfortunate for his own people but an unchecked Philippines is no threat to the global order. An unchecked China is. There is nothing sacred about the One China policy introduced by that wily trickster Nixon and China is not going to attack anyone just because Trump took one phone call. However taking the phone call is a signal that the US is no longer prepared to defer to China on everything. If China wants to earn its place in the world then it has to stop fomenting spies among its foreign students, dictating foreign policy to other countries and kidnapping dissidents from HK in breach of its original agreement
Re Duterte: oddly, one of the issues with him was his signalling that he wanted to shift national alliance to China more than America. Who knows what he thinks of the Trump/Bolton get tougher on China apparent approach then.
It all plays into what I said at my post this morning: Trump seems utterly clueless on the matter of telling different audiences completely different messages, and that seems to be extending into international relations.
China may well deserve a somewhat tougher approach - and no one's saying all is lost over one call - but Bolton, who seems to be in Trump's ear even if he doesn't get an official position - is widely regarded as a crank who has learnt nothing from recent interventions (and seems to be the only person in the world who thinks an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would be a good idea.) The Trump situation is dangerous, and the situation with the Taiwan call is not a great sign...
Bolton a crank. Hmm that is highly euphemistic.
I think Soony is taking Kastesdy's pills.
I blame twitter for this
it's disgraceful how beholden you are to the China lobby, Homes. Is this a Labor NSW Right thing?
it is astonishing how little you know about international politics.
by international politics knowledge do you mean knowledge of the names of mistresses of Chiang Kai Shek such as 'Skanky Ho', Homer?
Perhaps you two should both go on a study tour of Taiwan together...
Shut up Homer, you idiot. You're an embarrassment to any blog even small squeally ones like this.
Stepford, you're now getting your news from Colbert? At least it's not the Guardian or I the New York Times, you imbecile.
Nothing wrong with Trump taking a call from the Taiwanese chick. He could have let the Chinese know through other means other than Twitter.
US policy to China and Taiwan has been quite easy to understand and simple to apply. Evidently Trump does not even understand this.
what is more disconcerting Soony is that you do not.
As for skanky ho I provided evidence to back my view via urban dictionary.
you are quite forgetful about such thins. reminds me about you allegedly reading the Wages of destruction.
you are going to Katesy land
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