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Whose side is the US on? Doubts strain alliances
Military solidarity and trade wars don’t mix.
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The Trump administration’s conduct has destroyed trust, the most precious commodity among friends, says the writer.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Max Hastings
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Winston Churchill told a story of an 1895 encounter, as a young cavalry officer, with the statesman William Harcourt. After some discussion of great issues, Churchill asked eagerly: “What will happen then?” Harcourt replied, with Victorian complacency: “My dear Winston, the experiences of a long life have convinced me that nothing ever happens.”
Few people 130 years later could succumb to any similar delusion in a world that seems to have consigned itself to perpetual turmoil. Most recently, Poland has frightened European capitals by electing a right-wing, anti-European Union president rearmament to bring about “war-fighting readiness”, drone strikes against five bomber bases deep inside Russia.
