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Take a deep breath on Russia

Once again our president has been shown to be inarticulate at possibly the worst moment. By not condemning Russia on the world stage only gave his detractors fuel for their fires. But let's look at how some other presidents handled Russia/Soviet Union.

At the 1945 Yalta summit, FDR and Churchill (by the way France was left out of the meeting) gave Stalin Eastern Europe to create the Soviet Union. Overnight millions and millions of people became political dissidents.

In 1961, when JFK's Bay of Pigs failed, that led to Russian missiles in Cuba. Because of the Bay of Pigs debacle, Russian dictator Khrushchev saw JFK as weak and started the Berlin Wall.

In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and took Crimea. President Obama's response was tepid. Today Russia has strengthened their foothold.

In 2014, Russia sent troops to Syria to escalate the fighting and send millions across the borders seeking asylum in Europe. Obama's response to Syria was the Redline comment he failed to back up.

In 2016, the Obama administration received intelligence information Russia was going to meddle. Obama said he told "Putin to stop it" in a news conference.

Previous presidents have done, said and created the problems that we face today. Trump is bumbling at times, but his administration has closed three Russian embassies, expelled dozens of diplomats, placed huge financial sanctions against some of Putin's closest allies and is trying to get NATO to grow a spine. Given the failures of past presidents in Russian dealings, Trump's foot-in-mouth episode pales in comparison.

Russian spying and meddling is so widely known and pervasive that a cable TV network even created a hit TV show centered around Russian spies infiltrating America. So let's all take deep breath and exhale and then place the screws on Russia as needed.

Tony Atkins

Wheaton

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