NATO was the spark that started the war

Throughout the 21st century, NATO has been a very low priority among European nations. These nations shirked their very modest obligations to fund the alliance, and the United States picked up the slack.

As Donald Trump negotiates with Russia to end the Ukraine war, a starting point question for the Americans should be to ask if the post-World War II alliance is relevant in today’s world. Instead of preventing this conflagration, NATO’s existence was the spark that set it off.

Reporters ignore the economics of this war to focus on the arms shipments. But the Obama administration and President Joe Biden have weaponized the international monetary system and used the U.S. dollar and the banking institutions as weapons against Russia. Nations around the world for decades have accepted the U.S. dollar as an international monetary means of exchange. But when its purpose as a cooperative and utilitarian monetary system becomes a bludgeon with which a president of the United States can seize or freeze another nation’s assets, disrupt their trade and destabilize their domestic situation, it causes the leaders of all nations to pause, to ask if American monetary dominance is such a good thing.

Such a move always is framed as “sanctions” and it always is accompanied by a boast from the U.S. president that he is being tough on our enemies. It reminds one of the two heavyweight boxers trading insults at the weigh-in.

While reporters focus on inflation and write about its effect upon the 2024 presidential election, they ignore that inflation weakens the value of the U.S. dollar as a means of international exchange. For decades nations have held dollars in reserve because they were a good as gold. If that monetary reserve loses 10 or 20% of value due to inflation, it causes a lot of international heartburn.

Biden and his team’s lack of sophistication has done lasting damage with a foreign policy devoted to destabilize Russia. Would not a stable and prosperous Russia be to our advantage? Would not a prosperous Russia invited to join his European neighbors be far preferable to a hostile and besieged Russia?

The Democrat and leftist Republican approach to Vladimir Putin is that he is evil, nasty and dangerous. Come to think about it, that is the same approach the left has used against Donald Trump.

Stories such as a Fox News piece about a leak of strategy being discussed in the incoming Trump administration are always examples of how a willing and naive press can be manipulated by bureaucratic policymakers to the detriment of the nation and international tranquility.

Right now the war in Ukraine is draining U.S. resources, losing ground and killing millions of people. Nations are choosing sides, North Korea being the latest. Joe Biden wants to leave the White House with the war funded and Americans arms in the field.

The one advantage accruing to the U.S. is Biden will be gone in less than three weeks, and in his place will be an experienced president. The foreign heads of state, the leaders of foreign armies, all saw what Donald Trump is made of when he took a bullet and, with blood running down his face, raised his fist and shouted, “Fight Fight Fight.”

There is something more to consider about Donald Trump. He is a builder, not a destroyer. He is an international builder, whose negotiating skills are the reason for his success. It may be, by ejecting Joe Biden from the presidency and rejecting an unsuitable substitute, American voters have advanced the cause of domestic and foreign tranquility.

Unfortunately, the domestic politics of America will force Donald Trump to fight on two fronts to get anything done.