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Trump's comments about Montenegro maybe starting WWIII echo Putin's attitude toward the tiny country
New article from John Schindler:
Why did Trump choose to parrot Putin on Montenegro?
https://usa.spectator.co.uk/2018/07/why-did-trump-choose-to-parrot-putin-on-montenegro/
The show included the host alleging that President Trump “bowed” to his own intelligence agencies like a “hostage,” but Carlson was saving his real venom for a coordinated attack on NATO. The host asked Trump, “Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?” to which the president replied, “I’ve asked the same question. Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They’re very aggressive people. They may get aggressive, and congratulations you’re in World War III.”
Let’s omit the oft-encountered, vaguely homoerotic Trumpian obsession with strength. Neither shall we dwell on Trump’s glancing reference to NATO’s Article V, the collective defense provision, the alliance’s cornerstone, which the president did not mention because he presumably has never heard of it. Trump implied that Montenegro – NATO’s newest member, which joined last year – is an aggressive place which may drag America into World War III.
In fact, Montenegro is a tiny country of scarcely more than 600,000 people. It’s known mostly for its sunny Adriatic beaches, and in recent centuries it hasn’t attacked anyone except rampaging Ottomans. Its military has fewer than 2,000 troops, its army is a single light infantry battalion lacking armor or modern artillery, and its “air force” is a squadron of aging helicopters. Who exactly is Montenegro going to attack?
Neighbouring Serbia was far from pleased with Montenegro’s NATO accession – the two countries, having been joined (not always happily) in Yugoslavia from 1918, divorced in 2006 – since it cut off their former Adriatic coastline, leaving Serbia landlocked. However, Serbia’s mostly ramshackle military only looks impressive compared to Montenegro’s, even with Moscow’s recent gift of six MiG-29 fighters (aging aircraft to bolster Serbia’s handful of truly ancient MiG-29s that Moscow sold to Yugoslavia in the 1980s), Not to mention that nobody in Serbia wants to invade Montenegro, which Serbs view as errant kin rather than a real foe. That NATO could destroy Serbia’s military without breaking a sweat is also a mitigating factor.
Where, then, does Trump’s bizarre belief that little Montenegro is a big problem for America come from? It may not be irrelevant that Moscow was very upset about that tiny Balkan country joining the Atlantic Alliance. Putin’s regime pulled out the stops to block the pro-Western government in Podgorica from entering NATO. To be fair, it was a hotly contested issue, with a significant minority of Montenegrins having misgivings about signing on to the alliance.
The Kremlin did not restrict itself to its usual bag of spy-tricks – espionage, propaganda, and subversion – to keep Podgorica out of NATO. In a plot that was brazen even for Moscow, Russian military intelligence (GRU, the same service just indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for its meddling in America’s 2016 election) arranged to overthrow the Montenegrin government and assassinate its leadership. GRU operatives got caught through sloppy tradecraft, but the Kremlin’s obsession with that little country remains.
-snip-
Let’s omit the oft-encountered, vaguely homoerotic Trumpian obsession with strength. Neither shall we dwell on Trump’s glancing reference to NATO’s Article V, the collective defense provision, the alliance’s cornerstone, which the president did not mention because he presumably has never heard of it. Trump implied that Montenegro – NATO’s newest member, which joined last year – is an aggressive place which may drag America into World War III.
In fact, Montenegro is a tiny country of scarcely more than 600,000 people. It’s known mostly for its sunny Adriatic beaches, and in recent centuries it hasn’t attacked anyone except rampaging Ottomans. Its military has fewer than 2,000 troops, its army is a single light infantry battalion lacking armor or modern artillery, and its “air force” is a squadron of aging helicopters. Who exactly is Montenegro going to attack?
Neighbouring Serbia was far from pleased with Montenegro’s NATO accession – the two countries, having been joined (not always happily) in Yugoslavia from 1918, divorced in 2006 – since it cut off their former Adriatic coastline, leaving Serbia landlocked. However, Serbia’s mostly ramshackle military only looks impressive compared to Montenegro’s, even with Moscow’s recent gift of six MiG-29 fighters (aging aircraft to bolster Serbia’s handful of truly ancient MiG-29s that Moscow sold to Yugoslavia in the 1980s), Not to mention that nobody in Serbia wants to invade Montenegro, which Serbs view as errant kin rather than a real foe. That NATO could destroy Serbia’s military without breaking a sweat is also a mitigating factor.
Where, then, does Trump’s bizarre belief that little Montenegro is a big problem for America come from? It may not be irrelevant that Moscow was very upset about that tiny Balkan country joining the Atlantic Alliance. Putin’s regime pulled out the stops to block the pro-Western government in Podgorica from entering NATO. To be fair, it was a hotly contested issue, with a significant minority of Montenegrins having misgivings about signing on to the alliance.
The Kremlin did not restrict itself to its usual bag of spy-tricks – espionage, propaganda, and subversion – to keep Podgorica out of NATO. In a plot that was brazen even for Moscow, Russian military intelligence (GRU, the same service just indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for its meddling in America’s 2016 election) arranged to overthrow the Montenegrin government and assassinate its leadership. GRU operatives got caught through sloppy tradecraft, but the Kremlin’s obsession with that little country remains.
-snip-
So...who suggested to Tucker Carlson that he target Montenegro with that silly question? I don't for one second believe that he'd mention Montenegro in that fawning interview without first making sure Trump could say something in response other than, "What's Montenegro?" Someone has to have told Tucker to bring this up. Someone wanted Trump's base to get the Kremlin-approved message that Montenegro's membership in NATO is supposedly a danger for the US.
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