Weeds by Randy Krzmarzick: Cynical Flag Waving
Last June I wrote a letter to the editor concerning American support for Ukraine. Or lack thereof. Representatives Brad Finstad and Michelle Fischbach were among of a small group of Republicans responsible for withholding aid during a crucial time in their war against Russian aggression.
George Will wrote that those few congressmembers, “voted to endanger civilization.” In my letter, I said that Finstad and Fischbach would own whatever followed.
That was a heavy trip to lay on them. I’m writing today to say they can relax. A lot has changed, and their little vote back then doesn’t matter anymore. Brad and Michelle are off the hook!
The United States is much friendlier to the Russians and their not-really-elected leader Vladimir Putin. After the 2022 invasion, Donald Trump described Putin as “genius” and “savvy.” Now we’re aligning American foreign policy to reflect a cozier relationship with him.
Shortly after the inauguration, Trump made a call to Vlad. That’s not something American presidents typically do with murderous dictators. (Not counting Putin’s domestic foes who were poisoned or disappeared, he is responsible for more than 200,000 civilians killed in Chechnya, Syria, Georgia, and Ukraine. But who’s counting?)
After their chat, Trump posted that Ukraine was responsible for starting the war. It takes creative thought to see how Russia bombing cities in Ukraine before sending tanks and troops across the border was Ukraine’s fault.
Our president said to Ukrainian president Zelensky, “You should never have started it.” It also was Joe Biden’s fault. Because, really, everything is Joe Biden’s fault.
Trump has declared that only he can stop the war. That means giving Russia the territory they annexed. “Annexed” sounds so much nicer than taken by deadly military force after bombing schools and hospitals.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that it was unrealistic for Russia give up what they took. Hegseth is so committed to his new job that he announced that he was switching from drinking beer to gin. I’m not sure I would sacrifice that much for public service.
Along the same time that we were expressing fuzzy feelings toward Russia, JD Vance took the opportunity to berate our allies in Europe. He said they are not paying their fair share to NATO, they are too nice to migrants, and they dress funny. OK, I made that last part up.
While in Germany, JD met with leaders of that country’s AfD party. AfD is a far-far-right party, in many ways the descendant of the Nazi Party. You may remember from history class, we had a little falling out with the Nazis back in the 1940’s. JD wants bygones to be bygones. If AfD is willing to demonize and vilify immigrants, let’s be friends.
I thought of the dance scene from Mel Brooks musical “Springtime for Hitler.”
“Springtime for Hitler and Germany,
Deutschland is happy and gay,
We’re marching to a faster pace,
Look out, here comes the master race.”
As for our historic allies who have looked to the United States as the leader of the democratic free world, well, allies can be so clingy. They always want something. Besides, a lot of our allies are losers.
The United States is making new friends who are winners. Tough guys like Putin, Hungary’s Orban, and Turkey’s Erdoğan. These are leaders who you want on your side in a street fight. They’re the type who aren’t going to ask questions about whether something is moral or not.
On the third anniversary of Ukraine causing Russia to invade it, the United Nations passed a resolution that called for Russia to withdraw and cease hostilities. The United States voted with Russia against that. That shocked pretty much everyone.
A few days later, Secretary Hegseth ordered the U. S. cyber command to stop information gathering of Russian activity. Friends don’t spy on friends.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “The new American administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.” Aligning with the Kremlin, what could go wrong?
I haven’t seen anything that indicates any discomfort with our new foreign policy from our Representatives, so we must assume Brad Finstad and Michell Fischbach are on board.
Another benefit of turning away from global cooperation is that we save money. We saved a bunch by cutting all foreign aid on Inauguration Day. Many of those programs have been in place since Kennedy was president.
A series of memos by the administrator for global health revealed that the decision to withdraw foreign aid would cause enormous human suffering: up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year and as many as 166,000 additional deaths, 200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each year.
That administrator was immediately fired. Because, who really wants bad news anyway?
Besides, we have to finance three trillion in tax cuts that the President has promised his supporters. Especially the rich ones. It’s not that easy being rich. Everybody picks on rich people. Give them a break.
Here on the farm, we’re waiting to see what tariffs will do to our markets. In Trump’s first term, the administration gave farmers a lot of money to make us feel better about prices collapsing. I’m not sure Supreme Leader Musk will allow that this time.
I don’t get tariffs, especially because there are no living economists who think they are a good idea. But what do I know? I’m sure there are some non-living economists who liked them.
Speaking of dead people, Ronald Reagan said this: “Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies. We should beware of demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends, weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world, all while cynically waving the American flag.”
Reagan didn’t get all cuddly with Russia. And he saw immigration, past and present, as an American strength. I guess he was wrong about all that.
We all know Reagan got old and loopy while he was in the White House. That’s unlike Donald Trump, who is the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency and a stable genius. Trump told us so.
