THE COLD WAR ERA RETURNS FROM THE GRAVE
IF Donald Trump is indeed in cooperation with Russia, some circles in the U.S. may accuse him of treason. However, to prove Trump asked for Russian help, some type of evidence is needed
The New York Times reported that the FBI launched a secret probe into U.S. President Donald Trump. The fact that it has been revealed to the press proves the probe was not that secret, but it is still critical information. The leak demonstrates there are some people in Washington who thought that President Trump should know that an investigation on him is underway.
The probe believes that Trump may be a national security threat to the U.S. because of his alleged ties to the Kremlin. The Russian administration is accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and Trump is accused of collusion, i.e. of being somehow involved in Russian conspiracies to ruin the credibility of the Democrats’ last presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
There is no way to prove whether or not Russia has indeed influenced the U.S. electoral process. We all know, however, that everyone was surprised when Trump won, including himself.
The probe is looking for evidence that shows the candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had worked together to make sure Clinton did not win the elections. To claim that Trump has been elected thanks to a foreign country is nothing less than accusing him of treason. There is only one way to prove Trump asked for Russian help: To disclose a document that demonstrates this. The problem is such a document can be found only if the Russians disclose it. It is interesting that the reports about the probe surfaced in a time when Trump announced his intention of pulling U.S. troops out of Syria. It seems some people in the U.S. are trying to say that Trump is working for Russia’s interests, and that’s why he is abandoning Syria to Putin. In other words, they would prefer that U.S. troops stay in Syria.
One may claim that Trump’s foreign policy is indirectly helping Russia, but one has to admit that this trend started with President Barack Obama.
During the Obama administration, U.S. ties with its traditional allies, such as Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia, were quite bad. Obama pushed these countries away, and instead, he insisted on pulling Iran into the system. Russia benefited from this climate and launched a rapprochement with Israel and Saudi Arabia, and finally with Turkey. It was the Obama administration who decided to support the PKK-affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, even though this caused a deterioration in relations between Ankara and Washington.
Turkey, worried for its own security and territorial integrity, had to turn to Russia for help. As a response, circles close to the Obama administration started a propaganda campaign to denigrate Turkey, claiming that Ankara was engaged in an axis shift with the aim of building an alliance with Russia and Iran. In other words, the U.S. pushed Turkey toward Russia and then accused it of betraying its alliance with the West.
Obama conducted a similar policy visà-vis Germany. First, his adminstration encouraged Germany to be more proactive in Ukraine, but when Russia reacted harshly, the U.S. accused Berlin of putting the Western alliance’s security in jeopardy. In fact, it was Obama’s hesitant policies that allowed Russia to expand its zone of influence in different parts of the world. Now Trump is pursuing almost the same policy toward Russia, knowingly or unknowingly.
There are probably some circles within the U.S. administration who want to do whatever they want no matter who the president is. These circles are trying to return to the Cold War era and they use old tactics, consisting of pushing countries toward Russia, and then “saving” them from it.
If Trump is indeed in cooperation with Russia, some circles in the U.S. may accuse him of treason. However, the U.S. allies do not have much reason to complain about that. Many countries, like Turkey, had enough of being stuck between Russia and the U.S. and of being “saved” by them. The anti-Trump establishment in the U.S. must see that countries like Turkey, Germany and even Japan do not want to turn into Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s Egypt.