Sharing his thoughts on US President Donald Trump\u2019s maiden State of the Union, Republican Senator Black said he believes that Russia as well as China receiving only one mention in the 90-minute address is not a coincidence. Black argued that \u201cTrump was forced to refer to China and Russia in negative terms, but he moved on quickly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Some mainstream media immediately jumped to accuse him of being too soft on Moscow in comparison to his predecessor, Barack Obama, who went on a sanctions crusade against Russia late in his term. Black said that while Trump may not give up on his intention to improve relations with Moscow, it was impossible thanks to a \u201cdeep state\u201d that \u201cconspired to drive a wedge between us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n By initiating a probe into \u201cconcocted allegations of Russia collusion\u201d<\/em> between Moscow and the Trump campaign team, led by special councilor Robert Muller, \u201cthey blocked President Trump from moving closer to Russia, as he wanted to do,\u201d Black argued. According to Black, Trump succumbed to pressure from the war hawks when he announced the US would be beefing up the US military presence in Afghanistan in August.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump was reportedly angered by his staff\u2019s recommendation to expand the war by sending 4,000 additional troops. But the war hawks prevailed and we continue to waste men and treasure on that ill-fated venture,\u201d<\/em> Black said.<\/p>\n Contrary to US leader\u2019s assurance that \u201cin the end, we will win\u201d<\/em> in a protracted Afghan war, the Senator said<\/a> he believes that \u201cover time, the US is unlikely to experience any greater success\u201d<\/em> than the British Empire and the Soviet Union, which were both stuck in Afghanistan for years.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Speaking about Trump taking credit for the defeat of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and the liberation of the swathes of territories from terrorists, the senator argued that while the US \u201cdid help drive ISIS from Iraq and northern Syria,\u201d<\/em> Trump failed to mention the contribution of Russia, Syria itself, and the US\u2019 own allies in the fight against terrorism.<\/p>\n Praising the US military, Trump told only one side of the story \u2013 the other being that the US was \u201ccomplicit in its [ISIS] ascendency and the bloodshed and terror it spread.\u201d<\/em> Trump\u2019s pledge to offer assistance exclusively to \u201cfriendly nations\u201d which mirror US policy on key international issues, such as recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, \u201cignores the political realities of other nations\u201d and may prove detrimental to the US\u2019 own interests, Black said.<\/p>\n The recognition of Jerusalem, hailed by Trump as a major achievement, is \u201cunlikely to facilitate peace in the region and does little to enhance the US\u2019 reputation as a fair broker in peace negotiations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Trump previously threatened to cut aid to Pakistan, accusing the country of harboring terrorists and giving the US \u201cnothing but lies and deceit\u201d in the past 15 years, during which \u201cthe United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars.\u201d<\/em> That Twitter tirade sparked a wave of public fury in Pakistan, with protesters burning an effigy of Trump.<\/p>\n Black argued that Washington \u201cshould also acknowledge that it is partly to blame for the challenges now faced by Pakistan,\u201d<\/em> referring to its support of \u201cbarbaric, murderous madrasas in Pakistan and Afghanistan to undermine the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/em> Furthermore, it would be stopping aid to Pakistan at a time when any \u201cfriction with Pakistan\u201d might disrupt the logistics to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n It would also be hard to withhold assistance to Egypt, which, along with other countries of the Arab world and the UN, condemned Trump\u2019s Israel move. \u201cDespite his rhetoric, the US will find it difficult to cut funding to Egypt, which is so vital to stability in the Middle East,\u201d the senator said, noting that \u201creducing funds to Egypt would invite a revival of ISIS and its spread across North Africa.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n If you like this story, share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fact that Trump only briefly mentioned Russia during his State of the Union address means he does not want confrontation and only refers to it negatively to placate the hawks, Virginia State Senator Richard Black told RT. Sharing his thoughts on US President Donald Trump\u2019s maiden State of the Union, Republican Senator Black said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-346303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\u201cI do not believe he personally wants to raise tensions with either Russia or China,\u201d<\/em> the senator said, adding that the decision by the White House to hold off on sanctions against Russia under the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act [CAATSA] have \u201cangered the War Hawks.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
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Black noted that US weapons supplied to Syrian rebels often ended up in the wrong hands, \u201cincluding Al Qaeda and ISIS.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
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