Regarding Paul Kengor’s column “Why didn’t Putin do this under Trump?” (March 17, TribLIVE): Maybe the answer is as simple as Putin didn’t feel it was necessary and that Trump was doing all that was requisite to compromise and weaken the EU and NATO.
In July 2016, and throughout his first presidential campaign, Trump suggested that NATO was “obsolete” and that he might not honor the core tenet (Article V) of its charter that “an attack on any member country is an attack on all.”
July 2018: Trump alluded that Montenegro, a small NATO member, might not be worthy of defense.
January 2019: The U.S. Treasury Department lifted sanctions on three companies connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
October 2019: Trump announced American troop withdrawal from Syria that benefited Russia and Turkey but abandoned the Kurds who fought and died defeating the Islamic State.
Feb. 29, 2020: The Trump administration announced an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. and allied forces from Afghanistan within 14 months and release 5,000 Taliban prisoners by March 10, 2020.
June 2020: The Trump administration ordered the withdrawal of 9,500 U.S. troops from Germany.
Finally, maybe Putin and North Korea despot Kim Jong-un had the smarts to realize the benefits of nonaggression. According to a book written by former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Trump had indicated that he would seek to withdraw from both NATO and the U.S. alliance with South Korea during his second term as president.
Richard Dulemba
Washington Township, Westmoreland County