Summit Meetings

Joe Biden And Camp David Summit With South Korea And Japan Important Step For National Security And World Stability!

Ronald 1 Comment

In a world in the 2020s, in many respects just as dangerous as a hundred years ago, the need for America to build up and strengthen foreign alliances to promote democracy and security is urgent!

We are fortunate that we have a President, Joe Biden, wise enough to recognize, just as Harry Truman did three quarters of a century ago, the need to build strong international alliances to protect the US and promote democracy against totalitarian governments.

In the last century, we had Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan as the threats in World War II, and then in the Cold War years, we had the Soviet Union to combat.

More recently, we have the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and Iran as the leading rivals and threats to American national security and world stability.

So Joe Biden has wisely built up and expanded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) begun under President Harry Truman, and with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, making a strong commitment to the preservation of that nation’s independence from Russian dominance!

If Donald Trump or many Republican isolationists, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, were to win the White House in 2024, the security umbrella of NATO, with its 31 nations allied with the US, would be in danger of being destroyed, and would only encourage Vladimir Putin ever more in his aggressions, just like Adolf Hitler a century ago.

The news of the meeting of South Korea’s President and Japan’s Premier with President Biden at Camp David, Maryland, yesterday, is an indication of the desire to have closer relations with two key Asian allies, as a bulwark against China and North Korea, and is all to the good for the future of democracy preservation!

Camp David has been the location of historic summits, and adds stature to the commitment of the US to the support of two key Asian allies!

12 New Indictments Indication Of Russian Interference In 2016 Presidential Election, But Donald Trump Still Plans To Meet Vladimir Putin On July 16

Ronald 3 Comments

Donald Trump is due to meet Vladimir Putin tomorrow in Helsinki, Finland.

No one will be in the room with him, other than a translator.

Twelve new indictments of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election have been issued by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but Trump dismisses them as part of a “witch hunt”, and is not listening to his national security and intelligence advisers who tell him NOT to meet Putin.

Putin is a skilled, intelligent charmer, who will flatter Trump, and the issue of Russian indictments, even if mentioned, which is unlikely, will be brushed aside.

We are in the most dangerous summitry ever since World War II, even more than with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, as Putin is out to destroy NATO and become the “friend” of Trump, who has such a need to make a friend of a person who is a KGB agent, and Putin is likely to gain acceptance of his invasion of Crimea in 2014.

This is a warning to the Eastern European nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, and also to Ukraine, that they are likely to become victims of Russian aggression, with Trump excusing it, and refusing to back NATO.

We will never know until actions are taken by Putin what secret deals will be made in private by Trump, with his advisers in the dark about it as much as everyone else.

The damage Trump has done continues to escalate, and international affairs is in disastrous disarray.

Should Barack Obama Agree To UN Meeting With Iranian President Hassan Rouhani? YES!

Ronald 1 Comment

Iran’s new President, Hassan Rouhani, will be attending the fall session of the United Nations, along with other world leaders, a tradition at the end of each September.

Iran has been on a course to develop nuclear weapons, by every measure we have been able to gather through intelligence information.

But sanctions by the international community have had an effect on Iran’s economy, and the decision of the population to vote in a President who is looking for reconciliation with the West, makes one hopeful that Iran could reject nuclear weapons development, and just wish to develop nuclear power for peaceful uses.

Both the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the new President Rouhani have, in recent days, stated that they will never develop nuclear weapons, and want to end the state of tension between Iran and the US and other western nations.

The fact that they have said this does not mean we should, automatically, drop our guard on their possible threat to Israel, other Middle Eastern nations, and the entire world.

But with the new, conciliatory language, it seems worthwhile for President Obama, who will be attending the UN session later this week, to agree to meet with Rouhani, and start exploration of the possibility of negotiations and diplomacy, rather than continue a possible buildup toward military engagement.

Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, warns against trusting Rouhani and the Iranian government, and certainly, Obama and other Western leaders need to pursue engagement with Iran in a cautious manner.

But it is worth a try to see if Rouhani and Khamenei mean to have a serious discussion, as after all, the US always held summit meetings with Soviet leaders, so what is the danger in discussion, while keeping the possibility of the use of force in the background, if it is shown that Iran’s government is lying and is untrustworthy?

Any possibility of avoiding military force and war is worth a try, so hopefully, Obama will meet with Rouhani and explore the idea, without any pledge to drop possible military action in the future, if that, regretfully, becomes necessary!