Trump’s Helsinki summit with Putin elicits strong reactions

The following Sunday Forum is in response to “A stunned Washington reacts to Trump’s performance in Helsinki” (July 16).

‘Foolish’

Donald Trump said “the United States has been foolish.” These were the words of our president to the murdering dictator of a has-been superpower. A dictator who supports Bashar al-Assad. An ex-KGB agent, at war with the U.S., who has routinely murdered his rivals.

Our president stood there in Helsinki, side by side with this murdering dictator, in front of the international press, bowed his head and intoned “The United States has been foolish.”

A short while ago, our president stood side by side with a murdering dictator of a tiny country. A dictator who has killed thousands of his people. Who executed his uncle and had his half-brother murdered in Manila with nerve agents. Our president stood there in Asia and called the dictator a “great leader” and “one in 10,000” and then saluted the dictator’s general.

Democrats, Independents, patriotic Republicans; you have your slogan. Never forget it. “The United States has been foolish.” Indeed, the United States has been very, very foolish.

‘Lies’

As a retired diplomat (active 1965-88, in USSR 1969-70), I would like to share my impressions of the post-summit press conference.

While I am glad that these two leaders finally had a lengthy, face-to-face exchange of views, I was frankly appalled and deeply disappointed by our president’s disrespectful and inaccurate comments about our intelligence agencies’ unanimous findings and his unwarranted verbal attack on our FBI.

I was, however, intrigued by President Putin’s description of a potential, joint bilateral commission to include political scientists, former diplomats and other leaders which would meet to explore areas of possible cooperation – especially building a lasting peace in Syria that would encourage the return of refugees. I wish our president would have enlightened us further as to his views on this possibility.

Finally, the “reality show” performance painfully reminded me of some of my experiences in Russia during the height of the Cold War (1969-70). As U.S. diplomats, we expected to be followed (and were) and to be lied to by the government (and were).

What I found most distressing today were the president’s direct lies to the press in his final response. We need our media to hold him and our democracy accountable.

‘Dead issue’

This whole business over Russian meddling is laughable. First, what is meddling? Putting something on Facebook? Half of what is on there is fake. Did it actually have any effect on the election results?

President Trump didn’t actually state that he believed Putin over our military intelligence . Why keep talking about a dead issue?

Second, all this happened under Obama’s watch, not Trump’s. The Democrats didn’t do anything because they thought Hillary was going to win.

Lastly, the United States admitted to interfering in Israel’s elections, among others. Silence on this.

The politicians continue to do nothing but harass any effort to solve problems facing our nation. Why don’t they try to make America great again?

Impeachment call

The definition of treason is “a violation of allegiance to one’s sovereign or to one’s state.” President Nixon was driven from office by the reality that he would be impeached. His sin: He was involved in and attempted to cover up the break-in of the offices of the Democrats in the Watergate complex. Truly a major offense, yet one that was internal to the politics of the United States.

President Clinton was impeached, but not removed, for attempting to cover up his sexual liaison with an adult female. This should have been a matter between the young lady, President Clinton and his wife. Not a matter for Congress to pursue.

Now we have President Trump undermining our NATO alliance that has been central to keeping the peace since World War II, undermining the leadership of a reliable ally, Great Britain, attacking the European Union and, finally, giving aid and comfort to our enemy, the Russian Federation.

The talk in the aftermath is of perhaps, at the most, a vote to censure the president for his performance . He has been protecting the Russian Federation since he was a candidate.

If impeachment is not initiated very soon, America has truly lost its way. Congress should be ashamed of its failure to act, and the American people should be outraged.

‘Manchurian candidate’

Former CIA director John Brennan charged that President Trump’s behavior at the joint news conference in Helsinki “rises to and exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors’” required for impeachment proceedings to begin.

Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Having once been involved in American relations with the Soviet Union, I was astounded by the remarks of Trump when standing alongside the Russian president.

In a surreal sense – a mixture of bizarre fact and fantasy – it vividly reminded me of the movie, “The Manchurian Candidate,” in which Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) had been brainwashed by the Communists while he was serving in the Korean War. There is one major problem with the analogy: As a young man, Donald Trump would never have been caught behind enemy lines in a battle – and named a medal of honor winner.