So, Trump wants to add Middle Eastern nations (so far unspecified) to NATO so that the alliance can be more involved in the region. We need another obligation to go to war there like a hole in the head. That’s very peculiar for a Putin marionette who supposedly dislikes NATO, which by the way has grown already during his tenure. One always proposes larger missions for useless organizations. Such is the incoherence we’ve come to expect for the 45th occupant of the White House.
According to Politico, Trump said to reporters while describing in a call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg:
I think that NATO should be expanded, and we should include the Middle East. Absolutely … because this is an international problem…. And we can come home, or largely come home and use NATO. It’s an international problem. We caught ISIS. We did Europe a big favor.
So, I have actually said that I think the scope of NATO should be increased. And they should be looking for ISIS. We will help. But right now the burden is on us, and that has not been fair.
He went on:
NATO, right, and then you have M-E, Middle East. You call it NATO-ME. What a beautiful name. I’m good at names.
No, uh, if you add the two words, Middle East, at the end of it, because that’s a big problem. That’s a big source of problems. And NATO-ME, doesn’t that work beautifully, Jon? “NATO” plus “ME.”
NATO-ME – as though America hasn’t done enough damage in the region. This is our “stable genius” at work in the White House. Heaven help us.
Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute, senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society, and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies, former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest book isComing to Palestine. Reposted from The Libertarian Institute.
Stable genius? More like unstable moron.
JAIL-ME has a nice ring….
He wants to EXPAND NATO, and there are still antiwar Always-Trumpers who insist that he was ‘elected on an antiwar platform,’ and believe he’ll untangle us from these overseas foreign policy disasters. Far from it!
When you decipher Trump’s little hidden meanings, he’s also basically reminding us that he doesn’t give a flying f*ck about the rule of law, truth, or the Constitution. Being the POTUS means you never have to say you’re sorry.