For the past 24 hours plus, we've been savaged by Trump opponents and even – exasperatingly – Trump-supporters over the president's comments regarding his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.  What's been intentionally missing has been some perspective and context.  Perhaps this will help.  

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, toward the end of his term in office, cautioned against the power of the military industrial complex.  He urged that its power be held in check and that Congress and future presidents pay heed.

What does this have to do with Trump and Putin's summit?  The warmongers in D.C. – both parties – need a boogeyman for a variety of reasons, the biggest being that war and boogeymen are very profitable.  Although China is a dangerous immediate and long-term threat, quite a few in the Ruling Class and Deep State are too well compensated by Chinese interests to bite the hand that feeds them.  Thus, China will not be pursued too aggressively, lest the Chinese halt the gravy train.

War is, after all, quite profitable.

That leaves only one other boogeyman.  (Well, I would say Islam poses a grave existential threat, but the totalitarians in D.C. recognize a kindred spirit in the misogynistic death cult of Islam, so we cannot expect much action there.)

And the winner is Russia.  Ah, yes, the proverbial boogeyman of elections, truth, justice, and the American way.  (My apologies to Superman and DC Comics).

Okay, let's break down this dire threat our betters in D.C. and the media are badgering us about.  Russia's economy is one fifth the size of the U.S. (compared to China, which is almost on par with us).  Russia has a huge demographic problem in that the Russians are not reproducing enough Russian babies to keep up with Russian deaths.  Essentially, they are slowly dying because they are not keeping up demographically.  In fact, in 20 years, their economy will be even more of a basket case than it is now.  It's hard to rule the world if you don't have enough people to rule it with.

Their economy is a one-trick pony consisting of natural gas, oil, and other resources.  They do have some export value in non-energy mineral production, but it's not enough to add needed balance and diversity to their GDP.  In short, Russia produces nothing of value other than natural gas, vodka, and AK-47s.  That's not enough to make them a dominant, world-class power.

Oh, but they do have one little asset we must take heed of: the most nuclear weapons on the planet.  Given that dynamic, doesn't it make sense that we talk to the Russians and see if we can dial down the tension and reduce nuclear weapons?

The world has lots of bad leaders who command bad people.  But sometimes, reality demands that we talk to these people as a means of influencing them to do things that are in the best interest of the U.S., their neighbors, and the world.  Or, to be more pragmatic about it, recall the quote from FDR, who was discussing the Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza (an American ally but really nasty fellow): "He might be a SOB, but he's our SOB."

Oh, and Obama certainly did not have any problem dealing with Iran, one of the largest sponsors of terrorism on the planet and primary instigator of violence in the Middle East.  Thus, to cry heresy over the fact that our president sat down with a Russian tsar in an attempt to smooth the diplomatic waters is hypocritical and foolish.

But I digress...

The other reason why Russia must be the boogeyman of all boogeymen is that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the DOJ and FBI, the U.S. Senate, and assorted other members of the Ruling Class and Deep State need to keep the utterly preposterous canard of Russian-Trump collusion alive.  This ridiculous assertion must be constantly fed by the obsequious MSM for two fundamental reasons: first, to allow Robert Mueller to continue his witch hunt in pursuit of phantom crimes that can be pinned on Trump and his associates...which keeps Trump bogged down and defensive as he aggressively seeks to Make America Great Again, and second, as a smokescreen to hide the voluminous criminal acts of the Obama administration.  Were the DOJ and FBI to come under leadership loyal to Trump, we would be shocked at the level of criminality of the past administration.

Consequently, that criminality can never be revealed, lest many in the Ruling Class and Deep State live years behind bars.  To guarantee that, the DOJ and FBI must run interference against Trump until the day he is impeached, defeated, or constitutionally limited from running again.  

Therefore, a healthy, constructive rapprochement with Russia cannot be tolerated, because that would eliminate a boogeyman our warmongers desperately need, which might reveal the sham witch hunt of Robert-Beria-Mueller for the travesty it is.  Regrettably, we can expect that allegations of Russian chicanery in our elections will never go away...well, at least until the next Democrat is elected president.

W. Michael Caswell has been a devoted reader and commenter of AT for ten years.  He frequently comments under the pseudonym Janus.