#4 International diplomacy and international agreements should not be subject to "tough love."

Only a complete -------, or someone without a sensible world view, would suggest same

#6 Oh, yes you can.

You cannot name a single thing the Trump has done that has bettered this country. Zero.

And, even if you could, it would be an unintended consequence of some self-serving move on the part of Trump.

Especially when it comes to the Trump.

So spare me the homilies about not hating.

This isn't a disagreement over marginal tax rates or highway funding.

This is a government of evil men, one that chose corruption over transparency, cruelty over law, oppression over freedom, tariffs over prosperity, propaganda over truth, vandalism over stewardship.

Hatred, properly directed, is a recognition of moral reality. It is an insistence that some things are unforgivable while they are being done.

They want us numb, exhausted, and above all, polite. Polite people don't stop ICE from becoming a secret police. Polite people don't call a tariff disaster what it is. Polite people look away while kids go hungry.

We don't have to be polite.

As citizens, even of this failing Republic, we are obliged to be honest.

And the honest thing to say, in this gray November of America's diminished decade, is that they have earned our hate.

#6 WTF do you call this ("...his actions have helped the EU realize they need to step up..." ...

... if it is not a perverted form of tough love?

#10 Me.

I disagree ... vehemently.

We have international obligations and treaties that were entered into by the USA and countries around the world.

Want to change them?

Do so with the tools which brought them into existence in the first place.

The wave of the Trump's magic penis wand doesn't count.

#13 I think we have international obligations and treaties that were entered into by the USA and countries around the world.

You want the EU to lead their own defenses, with support from the US???

• Applause. Noble. Bravo. A worthwhile goal.

But do so with the tools which brought the current European security agreement(s) into existence in the first place.

Present your ideas, hammer them out with all the parties, reach an agreement, then submit it for approval by the US Senate (in the case of new security treaties vis-a-vis European Security).

Sorry, but your fantasy of the wave of the Trump's magic penis wand doesn't count.

Can you not face that reality, sentinel?

Or is magical thinking and "tough love" your only answer?

#13 sentinel, we already know that you're a bit unhinged from reality, based on your posting history.

You're the one supporting the Trump's magic penis wand dispensing with this as if it were just like the now-worthless stock in the many Trump casinos:

The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances comprises four substantially identical political agreements signed at the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) in Budapest, Hungary, on 5 December 1994, to provide security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The four memoranda were originally signed by four nuclear powers: Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.[1] France and China gave individual assurances in separate documents.[2]

International diplomacy is recognized by the above.

You want the Trump's magic penis wand to run the world.

Yep. You're a bit unhinged from reality, based on your posting history.

#16 | #17 Thanks, Donnerboy!

#13 You think that the Europe should be responsible for their defense, with the America only in a support role?

1. Just what is that "support" supposed to be? What does it look like?

Is America supposed to just abandon its European allies just because the Trump waves his magic penis wand and says so?

With no input from our European allies?

We should just tear up The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. Right, sentinel?

And just exactly happens when, after that, Putin, like Hitler before him, rolls his tanks west across all of western Europe?

We sit back and just watch from across the pond? That'll protect us, right?

Fill us with your brave and considered "thoughts" on this, sentinel.

Of course, we already know that you're a bit unhinged from reality, based on your posting history.

But give it a try.

Anyone else agree with sentinel on this?

Show us your love for Putin, Russia and the Soviet Union the Trump's magical penis wand and agree with sentinel.