‘It’s very hard to do big things alone. So competent leaders and nations rely on relationships built on shared values, shared history and shared trust. They construct coalitions to take on the big challenges of the age, including the biggest: whether the 21st century is going to be a Chinese century or another American century.
In that contest the Chinese have many advantages, but until recently America had the decisive one — we had more friends around the world. Unfortunately, over the last month and a half, America has smashed a lot of those relationships to smithereens.
President Trump does not seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you. Over the last few weeks, the Europeans have gone from shock to bewilderment to revulsion. This period was for them what 9/11 was for us — the stripping away of illusions, the exposure of an existential threat. The Europeans have realized that America, the nation they thought was their friend, is actually a rogue superpower.
In Canada and Mexico you now win popularity by treating America as your foe. Over the next few years, I predict, Trump will cut a deal with China, doing to Taiwan some version of what he has already done to Ukraine — betray the little guy to suck up to the big guy. Nations across Asia will come to the same conclusion the Europeans have already reached: America is a Judas.
This is not just a Trump problem; America’s whole reputation is shot. I don’t care if Abraham Lincoln himself walked into the White House in 2029, no foreign leader can responsibly trust a nation that is perpetually four years away from electing another authoritarian nihilist.”
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Glad to see you are still posting in alignment with your values, real American values, despite all the trolls making comments here, that are willing to give up all of our rights because they feel like it is their “team” in power. This will not end well. At some point, we all lose, maybe they will realize when there is an error on their social security but they can’t reach anyone to fix it, or their FEMA aid claim is denied after a disaster because they live in the “wrong” state or area, or their daughter is harassed by a local MAGA apparatchik with impunity. You can see from their comments that they see everything through a tribal lens, i.e. they feel like they have to support everything that their “side” is doing, even though it is clearly violating the Constitution and systems of checks and balances that have provided stability and prosperity to our country. Even if they believe that MAGA will actually allow continued democracy, which is almost laughable,, are they really willing to risk someone on the Left in the future wielding this kind of unchecked power next? We are cooked either way, just a matter of how fast the decline will be now….
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Long ago, the summer of 1980 (June and July), I was working in Calgary Alberta Canada.
1980 was a very tough year for Americans – we had Mount St. Helens (May 1980), we had the Iranians overrunning the embassy in Tehran (1979 – 1980), we had the Soviets invading Afghanistan (1979 – 1989), it was the Era of Stagflation, economic stagnation of high unemployment, and high inflation (1973 to 1982), we had massive floods of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and the Santa Barbara Oil Spill, which released over 1.3 million gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, ravaging the California coast and eco-systems.
In 1980, as immortalized in the film Argo, the Canadians with assistance from the CIA came to the rescue of the Americans who had escaped the Iran embassy and made their way to the Canadian embassy.
And, in 1980, we saw Terry Fox make his way limping on one artificial leg across a significant part of Canada, in his efforts to raise funds for cancer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox
When I returned to Calgary in September 1980, Terry had given up on his attempt as his cancer had returned and reached his lungs.
But, what I remember, as I was training at altitude for my first official 26.2 mile marathon, was a CBC announcer who noted how when others suffered a major loss, it was almost always the Americans first on the scene with money, resources, personnel. He then noted how when America suffered a major loss, seldom did anyone in another country reach out to help. He asserted (this is a quote): “What a privilege it is for Canada to be America’s closest neighbor” and how Canada benefitted greatly from the relationship, and how lucky Canada was to be in a position to help the Americans running from the US embassy. He also identified all of the Americans who contributed substantially to Terry Fox’s fundraising efforts.
Too many in America criticize her efforts to support others – such as Mahmoud Khalil. Screw him and others like him.
I choose to remember all the good Americans have done here and around the world. Yes, we make mistakes, but seldom are our motives wrong.
Reading Mr. Brooks comments, how soon we forget the lessons taught by Nixon’s overture to China and George H. W. Bush’s extended hand to Russians as the Soviet bloc disappeared, and the wall came down.
If our “friends” have such short memories, that will be there loss.
So also, our enemies.
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Joe Biden and his ilk betrayed us for for four years. Who the hell was running the country?
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A couple of examples of how he harmed us would be nice.
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Here a few for you to mull over. We still have no idea who was actually making the decisions.
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True friends don’t expect you to pick up the tab for dinner every day. They don’t start calling you names when you finally say I can’t afford this any longer. I’ve been taking out loans to buy you dinner because I want you to be my friend.
As for an authoritarian nihilist, I think he was just voted out of office.
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If you think for one minute that Europe would help us defend Taiwan against China you have another think coming!
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A nice opinion piece, nothing more. We will see down the road what the outcome of this brash diplomacy has wrought. As for European friends, we have fought in 2 world wars started there in the past 110 years and they don’t seem too upset about our troops garrisoned there.
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