Sidebar

[Teach]

A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, they would both perish. Considering this, the frog agrees to ferry the scorpion across the river. But midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. As they’re sliding beneath the water, the frog asks the scorpion, “Why did you sting me? You promised you wouldn’t!” The scorpion replies, “Hey, I’m a scorpion. It’s part of my nature to sting you.” The moral of the story is obvious: What is fundamentally vicious (pause) will not change.

Well, I view Vladimir Putin, the current president of the Russian Federation, to be “the scorpion” (I’m not necessarily implying that the United States or President Trump is “the frog”). I believe that any leader or any country that is “hoodwinked” by Putin becomes “the frog”.

Here’s a man who’ll stop at nothing to get rid of his rivals, including murder. Under Putin’s leadership, Russia has annexed the Crimea, has fomented a crisis in Ukraine, and has acted in a manner that has been contrary to American efforts in the Syrian Civil War.

That is why: I can’t understand why the current Trump administration would seek accommodation with a regime that seeks only to sow the seeds of unrest. In my view, that is the Putin game-plan: To destroy the United States from within. I, furthermore, believe that Putin has his sights set directly on Eastern Europe.

Only recently, we learned that Gen. Michael Flynn (he recently resigned as NSA head) had conversations with the Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak. In fact, these conversations took place even before POTUS was sworn in. It has been documented that Flynn made several calls in one day to the Russian ambassador. Initially, we were told that Flynn was discussing “logistical matters”. Now, it would appear that the matter of U.S. sanctions (President Obama instituted these sanctions just before leaving office) were also discussed. Was Flynn free-lancing, or was he acting in accordance with instructions?

Further, there is now talk of congressional hearings and investigations to get to the bottom of this. To - as some are saying - “to put this behind us.”

Meanwhile, as a result of all of this, the Trump administration is being tested. The North Koreans successfully launched an intermediate range missile even as Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and POTUS were meeting at POTUS’s Mar-a-Lago resort. More recently, the Russians have buzzed a U.S. destroyer in the Black Sea, have deployed a spy ship in international waters east of Delaware, and have violated an arms control treaty by launching an intermediate-range cruise missile.

Yes, the fable of “The scorpion and the frog,” when taken in the context of existing circumstances, is a most appropriate analogy. It’s a message that I hope the Trump administration will heed. To do otherwise could have unfortunate consequences.