The art of negotiations

By Ted Belman

Breitbart reports

“Neil Cavuto of Fox Business calls Trump’s press conference “disgusting”, “That sets us back a lot.”” and

“Bob Corker (R-TN) said President Donald Trump made America look like a “pushover”  and

Sen McCain released a statement describing President Trump’s remarks during the press conference as “pathetic,” disgraceful,” and “painful” to observe — “a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency.”

They are all wrong.

Both Trump and Putin wanted to publically break the ice which they did in a friendly manor. In addition Trump used the presser to debunk the Russian collusion conspiracy allegation. Heretofore, Trump had to be very careful not to communicate with Putin which would have fueled the conspiracy. Instead he used the presser to start a dialogue. Now he can talk to him whenever he wants.

Finally Trump wants a reset with Russia. He wants to make it an ally where their shared interests call for it. He knows that Russia is also a competitor. Why is it that when Obama wanted to enter dialogue with the Mullahs everyone applauded. When he showered them with all kinds of benefits, the Democrats and MSM fully supported him.

Not so with Trump’s outreach to Putin. Everybody is all over him.

This was not the time for hard-nose negotiations. It was a time to identify the issues that needed tackling. We all know what they are.  What follows will be the discovery of the positions of each side so that possible compromises can be negotiated. Some issues, like Iran are more pressing than others.

The Democrats and many others see Russia as an arch enemy. They can’t shed the cold-war mentality. Others, including myself and I believe Trump, reject this characterization and believe that good things can come out of cooperation as opposed to confrontation.

July 17, 2018 | 25 Comments »

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25 Comments / 25 Comments

  1. @ Sebastien Zorn:

    @ ArnoldHarris:Welcome back, Arnold. I can’t think of, nor find anything about current conflicts of interest between Russia and China, but, to tell the truth, I don’t think the U.S. and Russia have any real conflicts either.

    This was your statement to Arnold, this is what I based my original comment to you on. Anyway at least from my standpoint this thread is worn out or at least from my view. Thanks for your views.

  2. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Are you aware of the nature of Russian cyber attacks? Such as the ones that involve Ransomware on US Hospitals and Businesses?

    Via individuals I know I am aware of hospitals shutting down and not being able to do surgeries and see patients for days because of Russian cyber attacks. I guess just boys being boys does not impact anyone except for patients who may die.

    Russia in my view only respects power and mutual interests. Allowing them to try and reconstitute the Soviet Union is dangerous. Allowing them to take Georgia or parts and Ukraine was very weak by Obama. Trump is tougher luckily as he has sent weapons to the Ukraine which was a good thing. They get it when their soldiers die. Just like they got in Syria when the Russians got demolished in a battle with the USA and Kurds.

    I am for talking with Russia and finding areas of common interest but from a position of strength, which I believe Trumps gets in-spite of his failure at the Press Conference in Finland.

  3. @ Bear Klein:
    No, that was not my premise, either. there are conflicts between all countries. That’s a given. But Russia is not a foe. We have more problems with the EU and fewer common goals. Trump is right to look for areas of common agreement. Hannity also agrees that “meddling” in elections is something everyone does and Russia did not influence our election. All nonsense.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvdD0gkMPA8

  4. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Actually the poll you cited talked about a major threat and that was not my premise. My premise was that their are problems with Russia. Even in the article you cited the majority of Americans find problems with Russia if for one example one just looks at the negative view of Americans on Putin.

    You viewed Russia and USA without any conflicts. This view I was pointing out to you, is not in the majority. Your point that you do not have to be in the majority is certainly valid on a personal basis. Personal minority views are hard to base a national foreign policy on.

  6. @ Bear Klein:
    Well, the polls disagree on that. But, no question in either poll that there are many many Republicans who share my position which doesn’t place me outside the spectrum. Of course, if being in the majority made one right, then Ted might as well take down this website, no?

  7. This poll indicates my original position that the majority of Americans believe on the GOP & Democratic side that their are problems with Russia. Add unfriendly and enemy and you get clear majorities GOP 58% & Dems 75%.

    Overall, 6% of Republicans now describe Russia as a U.S. ally, 34% as friendly but not an ally, 38% as unfriendly and 20% as an enemy. Among Democrats, 8% say Russia is an ally, 17% say it is friendly, 33% unfriendly, and 42% describe it as an enemy.

    https://news.gallup.com/poll/237137/republicans-positive-relations-russia.aspx

  8. President Donald Trump knows exactly what he is doing. He took the opportunity in Helsinki to tell the world that he knows our intelligence services are not always trustworthy – why wouldn’t he? Under Barack Obama the politicized FBI, CIA, and DOJ colluded to interfere in an American election designed to delegitimize Trump and have Hillary elected!! FBI miscreants Mueller, Comey, Strzok, McCabe – continue to stonewall Devin Nunes investigation into FBI malfeasance. President Trump’s walk-back let the world know that POTUS knows there are two FBIs – the hard-working patriotic honest FBI AND the dishonest politicized Obama FBI that continues its efforts to hide Obama’s malfeasance and destroy Trump’s presidency.

  9. I think people keep forgetting that the intelligence agencies all claimed during the run-up to the elections that Trump couldn’t be trusted with intelligence matters and that they would need to consider their briefing of him very carefully.
    What’s changed?

  12. @ ArnoldHarris:
    Arnold Russia is not a superpower. It was not in 1917 and it was among the most backward country on earth. It was exhausted totally by 1922 as a result of the destruction of the First World War, the blockade, the Civil War it was FORCED to fight. Then the ravages of Stalinism and then the losses caused by Nazism.

    Today Russia is very weak and very vulnerable. NATO has positioned at every point on its border. Taking Crimea was a special case and not aggression. It had to. And Crimea WAS Russia historically, see Robert Spencer today in Jihadwatch.

    As Ted says it is no power in economics and is smaller than Italy, that is of ONE country in the EU. Trump is right about the EU and tariffs and now the EU escalates by its alliance with Japan.

    But this has clarified things a lot. Fox News apart from Hannity is neocon grouping.

    All Trump has is the ordinary folk who voted for him. They are the real realists.

    They have learned to question everything including the propaganda about the British poison affair in Salisbury, and the White Helmets actions on poison gas in Syria. And this Media has lost these people. Trump is aware of the Jihad issue and he understands Iran as a branch of this Jihad.

    It is the neocons who have done the real damage to our world. And this Putin issue today shows they are all neocons and also the forces ranged against President Trump. These are considerable forces. There is great danger ahead, for Israel and for all of us who do not wish for more neocon wars.

  13. Bear Klein Said:

    “Never mind what I think, the majority of Americans believe that there are problems with Russia. Your view is very outside what both political parties believe”.

    Is it?

    “While Russians see greater global influence for their country, around half of Americans (52%) said in an October 2017 survey that Russia’s “power and influence” constitute a major threat to U.S. well-being, compared with 38% who said Russian power is a minor threat and 9% who said it is not a threat. These views varied substantially by party. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were far more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say Russia’s power and influence are a major threat (63% vs. 38%.)”

    http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/13/key-public-opinion-findings-on-trump-putin-and-the-countries-they-lead/

  14. @ Edgar G.:

    I just read Bear’s highlighted section where Trump says he “misspoke”, and accepted the report of his Intelligence. So I don’t know what to think. It could be that he says this because he’s back in Washington, and right back into the storm in a teacup nonsense that EVERYTHING he says , positive or negative results in the same king of eruptions, from the d=same people.

    I leave the real answer to those more steeped in political chicanery that I. But it wouldn’t be the first time a politician reversed himself in the blink of an eye, in almost the same breath. Common for Democrats and lawyers -which many of them are -, (not so much for Republicans) without even pausing to think about it.

  15. I don’t see Russia as a problem at all given their very small GDP, shortage of men, huge Muslim population. Russia is a shadow of the USSR. It too couldn’t compete with the US. Russia is perceived by the EU or Europe as a problem because of its expansionism. Then Europe calls upon the US to do the heavy lifting. There is much to recommend an alliance between Russia and the US. The carrot should be Crimea and possibly the two eastern provinces of Ukraine, Providing that’s the limit, Europe will be satisfied. Europe, in practice is not an ally of Israel or even the US. Europe leeches off the US. Russia doesn’t. Russia has much to offer.

  16. @ Bear Klein:

    He could have said that as a “sweetner” because after all, he didn’t go there to insult Putin in his own bailiwick. Political sense alone would prevent it. Otherwise it would have become an antagonistic and aggressive meeting, when there were far far more important things to discuss and get some agreement on.

    I believe that he asked Putin to allow the 12 named Russians to be extradited.

  17. email received,

    Good analysis Ted !
    Russia did not want the West in its backyard in Ukraine- especially led by one world government types like Obama and Soros.
    Russia and Israel stand in the way of one world government- no wonder they are viewed as enemies by the Democrat Party.
    Tying Trump to Russia and Israel is another attempt to get rid of him.
    Meanwhile the real traitor (Brennan) walks.

  18. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Never mind what I think, the majority of Americans believe that there are problems with Russia. Your view is very outside what both political parties believe. The USA government also believes there are issues so as it has imposed sanctions on Russia. The USA and Russia (mercenaries) fought a battle in Syria and 100s of Russians were killed. The Russians have been buzzing USA ships and doing other confrontational military things.

    Russia has nuclear weapons and a very weak economy. They are a power but not a super power because of economics. I believe their GDP is 25% of the size of Canada with five times as many people. You can not be a super power with a weak economy.

  19. @ ArnoldHarris:Welcome back, Arnold. I can’t think of, nor find anything about current conflicts of interest between Russia and China, but, to tell the truth, I don’t think the U.S. and Russia have any real conflicts either. Seems completely manufactured and unbelievable to me. China and the U.S. have some real conflicts brewing over tariffs, intellectual property right infringement and Taiwan (3 T’s, how ’bout that.) But, that’s it. It all seems very artificial to me. Like liberals, who don’t believe in borders, nations, armies or intelligence services, posturing as patriots and trying to whip up a new McCarthy Era and cold and hot wars all over the place. I think it started with Kerry, running for President for and showing up to the Democatic Party Convention in his Vietnam era uniform — the one he wore when he threw his medals on the White House lawn after forming a seditious antiwar soldiers’ organization, “Winter Soldier’ (I suppose it was the template for “Peace Now”) that made up atrocity stories to undermine the war effort — and announced, shamelessly, and in a loud declamatory voice, “John Kerry, Reporting for Duty.”

  20. A consideration almost never discussed at length online is a possibly growing threat to Russia from China. There are only three superpowers in the world today and for the foreseeable future. These are the USA, China, and Russia. If Russia should be weakened to the extant that they have to pick and choose one or the other, it is in the long-term interest of the USA that Moscow should choose Washington rather than Beijing.This consideration has little to do with the Middle East, and Israel should be careful to maintain the friendliest of relationships with all three of the world contenders.

  21. Trump walks back his comment at the presser.

    Trump says he misspoke on Russian meddling during press conference, accepts US intel findings

    President Trump said Tuesday that he misspoke when he seemed to dismiss allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, stating clearly that he accepts the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions as he sought to quell a bipartisan firestorm over his press conference with Vladimir Putin.

    The president clarified his remarks during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House, in a rare backtrack.

    In Helsinki a day earlier, Trump had said he doesn’t “see any reason why” Russia would be behind election meddling. This and other comments led to bipartisan outrage and accusations that he was taking Putin’s word over the intelligence community’s.

    But Trump said Tuesday he meant the opposite. He suggested he was surprised by the negative reaction when he returned to Washington.

    “I came back and said ‘What is going on, what’s the big deal?’” Trump said, adding that he reviewed the transcript and “realized that there is a need for some clarification.”

    The president told reporters that he meant to say he doesn’t see why Russia “wouldn’t” be responsible.

    “I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’ … sort of a double negative,” he said.

    It’s unclear whether the clarification will calm the backlash in Washington, as Trump also said following his meeting with Putin that the Russian leader gave a “strong and powerful” denial.

    But Trump sought to make clear Tuesday that he stands behind the intelligence community.

    “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” he said, adding: “It could be other people also.”

    Trump’s comments came after even his allies urged him to clean up the press conference statements from Finland. Until now, Trump had battled his critics via Twitter while defending his trip abroad.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/17/trump-says-misspoke-on-russian-meddling-during-press-conference-accepts-us-intel-findings.html

  23. Bear Klein

    Your politics really stink and that is the best I can say about your CNN type comment above…To see how far removed you are from Ted Belman, and I am sure Martin Sherman as well, plus I am confident of Edgar too, do check out this great interview with Hannity

    https://youtu.be/bQYosxXNgK0

  24. Bear cannot break with Joe McCarthy

    “and he did not collude with the Russians.”

    That is the essence of your politics right there. You are a hard nosed and unredeemable McCarthyite

  25. There is a lot of sense in what you wrote Ted. Trump made one error in the presser he said he did not believe Russia tried to interfere in the USA election that is simply false. He takes this posture because he believes his election is diminished if they did.

    No one voted for Trump because the Russians were trying to mess with the election and he did not collude with the Russians.

    So he should have said nothing or said I expect the Russians not to interfere in USA elections.

    Yes it makes more sense to use “Real Politic” with the Russians (see Kissinger) and talk to them to cooperate when possible and avoid other problems because of dialogue.