Why die for Montenegro? Apparently for US President Donald Trump there is no reason. Why should his son die for a small country far away? Why should anyone fight and die for aggressive people like the Montenegrins?
Mr Trump made his statement during an interview with Fox News, after a European tour which saw him meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Queen Elizabeth II in the UK and attending the latest NATO summit in Brussels.
Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson asked to the US President: “Membership of NATO carries an obligation to defend any other member which is attacked. So let’s say Montenegro, which joined last year, is attacked. Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?”
Mr Trump replied: “I understand what you’re saying, I’ve asked the same question. Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They are very aggressive people, they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you are in World War III. But that’s the way it was set up.”
The same Mr Trump last year signed the US instrument of ratification for Montenegro’s accession to NATO, despite Russian objections.
“The United States will work to further strengthen our already strong relationship with Montenegro and looks forward to formally welcoming the country as the twenty-ninth member of the NATO Alliance,” the White House said in a statement back then. “President Trump congratulates the Montenegrin people for their resilience and their demonstrated commitment to NATO’s democratic values.”
Now that resilience and commitment – so much praised in 2017 – has turned into aggressiveness and a possible trigger of World War III.
Mr Trump claimed that the US pays up to “90 per cent of the cost of defending Europe”
“It was very unfair, they weren’t paying. Not only are we paying for most of it but they weren’t even paying and we’re protecting them. Add that to your little equation on Montenegro,” he continued.
This interview has gone viral on social media where people are comparing Trump’s declaration to the famous article of May 4, 1939, which asked: “Why die for Danzig?”, which encouraged Hitler to invade Poland in September of that year.
During last week’s NATO summit President Trump was seen pushing Montenegro’s Prime Minister Darko Markovic aside in order to step in front of other world leaders.
“This was an inoffensive situation,” Mr Markovic commented, thanking Mr Trump for “his support, and speedy ratification of the accession protocol in the US Senate, the overall support for Montenegro’s Euro-Atlantic integration and of course the further development of our bilateral relations.”
Yeah if one listened to the actual interview it was not aggressive. They were discussing NATO. No wonder people get outraged. the “media” says anything they want to progress their own agenda.
If one read the article more carefully they would understand that it was not the interview that was aggressive. Trump called the people of Montenegro aggressive while discussing NATO. That means he quickly changes his mind. First he congratulated the people of Montenegro on their resilience and then called them aggressive. Of course, it’s always better to blame the media.
[…] Pro-European Union candidate Milo Đjukanović was voted Montenegro’s president for the second time in April after taking almost 54 per cent of the vote. In its Western Balkans strategy, the European Commission singled out Montenegro and Serbia as the only two countries in the region currently capable of full EU membership by 2025. US President Donald Trump was ridiculed for suggesting that Montenegro was an ‘aggressive’ country. […]