JLH has translated a couple of articles that discuss President Trump’s recent meeting with Vladimir Putin from a German viewpoint. These are pro-Trump pieces, so they are very much in the minority in Germany.
The translator includes this introductory note:
The AfD and Henryk Broder — The Dynamic Duo Call Out the World Opinion-Makers on the Trump-Putin Summit
What do thoughtful Germans think of the Trump-Putin summit, and how can they possibly disagree with the CDU-CSU, FDP, Greens, LINKE and SPÖ, as well as 95% of the world press, 100% of the Democrats, 90% of the RINOs and 105% of the Antifa, to say nothing of Google, Facebook and George Soros?
Do none of them recognize in Petr Bystron’s analysis of Trump’s opening remarks a reflection of the “art of the deal”?
The first translated article from Politically Incorrect:
AfD Expresses Satisfaction With Results of Summit Talks
July 18, 2018
(This is how “the summit” looks to the German incitement press: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin masterfully pass the global political ball back and forth. “Bloodymir, is the f****** soccer ball really [not] bugged?”)
With the 3-day “Conference for Security and Cooperation” in Helsinki in the summer of 1975, there began the tradition of holding results-oriented Russian-American summits in Finland: The “spirit of Helsinki” began in the context of the historic meeting of American President Gerald Ford and Soviet State and Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev.
In the initialed final act — supported by the USA and Canada, as well as all of Europe, with the exception of self-isolated Albania — the West and the Eastern Block agreed on rules and principles for a peaceful coexistence, and a strengthened economic exchange. Helsinki 1975 was the first door-opener for a step-by-step rapprochement of the great powers and the fall of the Iron Curtain.
After the more or less renewed “splendid isolation” of EU-Europe from the USA and Russia, hitherto encouraged by the German humanitarian imperative, the disastrous foreign policy of lame-duck Barack Obama and a wobbly EU Commission President Juncker, the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on July 16, 2018 represents a significant step toward a new peaceful rapprochement of the two populous powers. No matter what kind of howl the manipulation press puts up.
The date of this meeting is not randomly meaningless. Exactly 100 years ago, in the night between July 17th and 18th in 1918, the Czarist family Romanov was liquidated by an ideologically blinded Bolshevik mob. Today they would be called Antifa.
But no matter how the German political-media complex rages and demonizes the approach to Russia of the self-made billionaire Donald Trump, the leading politicians of the “party of reason,” the AfD, welcome this courageous step in the direction of a long overdue international understanding.
AfD chief Petr Bystron: “The rapprochement of Trump and Putin is a good signal for Europe and the world.”
The chief of the AfD in the Foreign Affairs panel of the Bundestag, Petr Bystron, sees in the bilateral talks a good sign for relaxing tension and cooperating in Europe — and a new “spirit of Helsinki” in prospect.
“Donald Trump made a grand gesture toward Vladimir Putin. Before the start of the Helsinki summit, the US president confessed that the bad relationship between the USA and Russia was largely caused by mistakes in American foreign policy in recent years.
“Trump’s efforts to improve the relationship with Russia are a good sign, and deserve recognition. A long-lasting détente in Russian-American relations requires honesty. The US president’s self-critical indicator can be the basis for constructive talks and normalization of relations.
“In the 1990s the world experienced a wonderful phase of détente and cooperation between the USA/NATO and Russia. With their Helsinki meeting, the presidents of the USA and Russia have now laid the groundwork for finding a way back to this form of easing of tensions.
“It will be welcome if this summit calms the situation and a verbal disarmament occurs. Europe, and especially Germany, can only profit from this rapprochement. Through the easing of tension, the world has moved closer to a lasting and sound resolution of the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. Such important diplomatic successes must be supported and encouraged unreservedly by Germany.”
Dr. Alice Weidel: “Challenges are easier to overcome with — rather than against — Russia.”
The AfD parliamentary party leader Alice Weidel comments on the Trump-Putin summit with optimism regarding multi-faceted international challenges:
“The rather shrill reactions to the meeting of Donald Trump with his Russian colleague are incomprehensible and inappropriate. It should be welcome in German and European eyes that the president of the United States — in the face of noisy resistance from the US establishment — is undertaking to normalize relations with Russia and overcome the undeclared cold war.
“Instead of reflexively vilifying Trump and demonizing Putin, it would be wiser for German policy to pick up on this signal and work toward a quick end to the senseless and mutually damaging Russian sanctions. The great challenges of our time are not intellectual debates or alleged Russian interference in elections, but the expansion of militant Islam, damping down the hot spots in the Near and Middle East and China’s drive for economic and political supremacy.
“Answers to all of these challenges are easier with, rather than against Russia. Unlike many cold warriors in politics and the media, Donald Trump seems to have recognized this.”
In the subsequent press conference, Donald Trump made clear that there will be further rapprochement with Russia. Rejecting political meetings as well as doing nothing — as the Democrats demand — is no solution. His decisions in US foreign policy are not intended to please parties, critics, media or Democrats, who, in Trump’s word, want nothing but to resist and block. Constructive dialogues between the USA and Russia, according to Trump, bring the chance of finding new paths to facilitate peace and stability in our world. Trump’s epic statement may be added to the well-known foreign policy quotations of Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy”
“I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace, than to risk peace in pursuit of politics.”
And Henryk Broder — a party of one — adds his 2 Pfennigs’ worth (also from Politically Incorrect):
Broder’s Mirror: German Cures for Homesickness
July 16, 2018
When away from home, it helps to view the news at Tagesschau via the internet. Seeing that makes the homesickness go away for a while. Other than that, you get the impression that German journalists regard themselves as world champion prophets when it comes to the summit between Trump and Putin. No matter if the talks were successful or not. In the eyes of German opinion shapers, either the US president has made the mistake of allowing himself to be caught in a web, or he was too undiplomatic. Yet Donald Trump could well the perfect interlocutor for a Vladimir Putin.
For the subtle minds in German editorial circles, Trump is an imposition. For journalists who spend their days waiting for chunks of boilerplate from German top politicians, a politician who constantly communicates in simple words exactly what he is thinking, even if he sometimes contradicts himself, is too much to handle. As such, he seems to be the only known politician who enjoys politics. Looking into German quality media, it appears that our biggest trouble at the moment is that Donald Trump is still US president. Many German editors suffer so greatly from this situation that they cannot bring themselves to pay attention to the small problems in their own country.
Russia has its own interests, as do the US, Israel, and Germany. The fact that each country has its own interests does not preclude an agreement minimizing the chances of war, and optimizing economic movement that will benefit both sides.
Once a country makes a name for pursuing its own interests, the pressures to act differently will actually grow less. How much pressure does the EU exert towards Japan to get Japan to accept more Muslims? There might be a formal declaration, but in fact, the EU commissars know better than to waste their efforts, and don’t.
In a sense, having Russian spies in the US, and even in the inner circles of the government, makes sense for both governments. It minimizes the chance of miscalculation. I read where in 1953, China (or Russia) had spies in the US government, which reported Eisenhower was considering using nuclear weapons in Korea. This seemed to facilitate the armistice talks. The Russians should have access to our strategic, though not our tactical, planning, and visa versa. Remember the scene from “Dr. Strangelove” where the Russian ambassador describes the existence of the “doomsday machine”, designed to eradicate mankind if Russia is ever attacked.
Strangelove says, that’s all very fine. Why didn’t you tell us about it? The ambassador replies they were saving it for the Russian President’s birthday, when they would make a grand announcement.
Eisenhower did consider using atomic bombs if the Chinese/North Koreans resumed hostilities after the 1953 ceasefire, which didn’t happen.
If I may don my military aviation history hat (again!), the UN forces in Korea were aware that some of the North’s MiG-15 fighters (based on a WW2 German design) were flown by Soviet pilots, but ignored this to avoid a confrontation with the Russians.