The GOP blasted Biden when the Taliban overran Kabul.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. A few hours train ride is nothing

The first time I went to Europe I visited my soon to be German wife. I didn't have all that much time, and we spent most of it in Berlin where she lived (or West Berlin as it then was known.) But of course I was intrigued by the idea of being in proximity to so many other European nations I had never visited before either. So we also made a whirlwind 4 or 5 day swing through Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Not much different spatially than transiting through New England and a few of the mid Atlantic States.

Russia is not so distant when you live in Germany. Americans who have not traveled internationally have a hard time grasping how clustered together other nations can be without oceans to separate them.