Pierce: Only This President* Could Make Montenegro a Foreign Policy Problem

[babylonsister]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22357779/donald-trump-montenegro-war/

Only This President* Could Make Montenegro a Foreign Policy Problem
It just happens to be a problem that lines up with Russia's view on things.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 18, 2018


Montenegro has only been an independent nation again since 2006. (It had been independent previously between 1697 and the end of World War I, when it got folded into Yugoslavia.) It seems like a nice enough little place. F. Scott Fitzgerald liked it enough to make it one of the countries that decorated Jay Gatsby during The Great War.

I was promoted to be a major and every Allied government gave me decoration--even Montenegro, little Montenegro down on the Adriatic Sea!

And, back in parochial school, they made sure we knew all about Our Lady of the Rocks, Therefore, what it ever did to deserve this is beyond me. From The Atlantic:

At Trump’s first nato summit in 2017, he shoved aside Montenegro’s prime minister, Duško Marković, during the so-called family photo that brings together the leaders of the alliance’s member states in order to get a more prominent position in the picture. Then, in an interview broadcast Tuesday on Fox News, Trump called Montenegro, a country with roughly the same population as Vermont (about 620,000 people) and about the same geographic size as Connecticut, “a tiny country” with “very aggressive people…They may get aggressive, and, congratulations, you’re in World War III,” he said.

Trump was responding to a question from Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host who asked him why, in the event Montenegro were to be attacked, “ should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?” Trump responded: “I understand what you’re saying. I’ve asked the same question.”

Yeah, and I’ll never stop blaming Ethiopia for starting World War II.

The hell? This is a country with less than 700,000 people that nonetheless honored its NATO commitment and sent troops to Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the only time that Article 5 of the NATO charter ever has been invoked. Now, somehow, because the President* of the United States knows nothing about anything, Montenegro is a foreign-policy problem that could spin this country into a cataclysm. And, on the electric Twitter machine, Jake Tapper of CNN points out that the Russian propaganda apparatus has been using Montenegro as a wedge on NATO—and on Montenegrin domestic politics—for a while now.

If you want to argue that NATO expansion was too ambitious and that it was conducted too hastily, that’s an interesting debate to have, particularly if that expansion was based on Russia’s being too hobbled to be bothered by it. But the expansion took place, and Montenegro is now as much of a member of NATO as France is, and that commitment managed to keep the peace through times much more perilous than these. Of course, the United States has never been led by an ignorant mucksavage before, so we’ll have to see.

[Scurrilous]

1. K&R

[dameatball]

2. Montenegro will NOT be attacking Russia. So "Say It All Together".....

…..the only other option is Russian designs in that area.

Trump's destroy NATO tour is already showing results.

[riversedge]

4. Lordy lord. We are so much in deep trouble with the world. damn

[csziggy]

7. Montenegro should attack the USA!

Who knows - they could win.

[dameatball]

8. I need to re-watch that movie. It was pretty funny.

[csziggy]

9. It was the first international affairs movie I ever watched

I loved it when I was a kid, but I never realized until watching this trailer that it was one of Peter Sellers' earlier movies!

[dameatball]

10. Yes, it was overlooked I think. Worth watching again.

[GoCubsGo]

20. Yes, Putin has designs on it.

Along with the rest of the Balkans.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-trump-montenegro-20180718-story.html#

[riversedge]

3. I doubt that any son of vile Tucker Carlson would be in the military................

.....Trump was responding to a question from Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host who asked him why, in the event Montenegro were to be attacked, “ should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?” Trump responded: “I understand what you’re saying. I’ve asked the same question.”

[ProfessorPlum]

6. Seeing as how he is the heir to the vast Swanson frozen food fortune

I quite agree with you. His family would not fight.

[PufPuf23]

5. That is willful stupidity on the part of Trump.

Montenegro is in Trump's mind (and now in minds of the mindless followers) as a potential scapegoat for war.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Montenegro is an avatar for the Baltic States...

Trump is convincing his people that going to war to support some small Eastern European country would be foolish and a waste.

Russia tried to assasinate the Montenegran leader last week. The subterfuge and dirty tricks have been going on in the Baltic States have been going on for many years. Things are getting ominous.

[dameatball]

12. If Hugo Montenegro would compose the music for Trump's military parade all would be forgiven

Cint Eastwood might even show up.

[Gothmog]

13. From the Hoarse Whisperer

Link to tweet

[smirkymonkey]

15. I still fucking hate him for that.

Such an arrogant, dick-head move. I'm amazed anybody puts up with his shit. He is the most repulsive person on the planet.

[llmart]

17. Me too.

Every time I see that clip I want to reach into the screen and choke him with that penis extender of a tie.

[smirkymonkey]

19. *snort*

I know just how you feel! After he did that and then gave that Mussolini chin-jut, I just wanted to ram his head through a wall.

[world wide wally]

18. I second that

[Solly Mack]

14. K&R

[appalachiablue]

16. Everyone knows Montenegro is a longtime global troublemaker,

highly dangerous with 'very aggressive people'! A 'sh*thole country' too! Lol.



Thanks Charlie, nailed it again!