Trump to Montenegro: Drop Dead - Editorial Board, NYT

[TomSea]

Opinion | Trump to Montenegro: Drop Dead

The president, willfully ignorant of the nation’s commitments under NATO, dismisses tiny Montenegro as not worth defending. Smirk on, Mr. Putin.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

    July 18, 2018


President Milo Djukanovic and a delegation from Montenegro arriving at the NATO summit last week.CreditDarrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

This has been the Trump trip that keeps on giving. There hardly seemed more damage he could do after he declared the European Union a “foe,” insulted Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, railed at NATO, upstaged Queen Elizabeth II and gave that infamous news conference with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Yet then, for good measure, came his weird suggestion that Montenegro’s 640,000 souls are “very aggressive” and could drag NATO into World War III.

In the context of an obsequious interview by the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, taped in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday and aired on Tuesday evening, it appeared almost as an aside in President Trump’s standard rants about trade, migrants, Hillary Clinton’s computer servers, the perfidy of the F.B.I. or NATO’s penury. Yet like so many of Mr. Trump’s unscripted comments, it revealed another facet of his ignorance of and disdain for America’s historic place in the world and its alliances, or of the power of a presidential pronouncement.

After drawing Mr. Trump into the usual tirade on how the NATO allies were getting a free ride while ripping off the United States in trade, Mr. Carlson moved to his next prompt: “So, let’s say Montenegro, which joined last year, is attacked. Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack? Why is that?”

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/opinion/editorials/montenegro-nato-trump-article-5.html

[jpsb]

It was hugely stupid to allow Islamic Montenegro to join NATO.

[TomSea]

It was hugely stupid to allow Islamic Montenegro to join NATO.

It is not Islamic.

While Orthodox Christianity is the dominant form of religion in Montenegro, there are also sizable numbers of adherents of both Islam and Catholic Christianity. The dominant Church is the Serbian Orthodox Church although traces of a forming Montenegrin Orthodox Church are present.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Montenegro

So, per the graph on the page, almost 75% Christian.  And almost 20% Muslim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Serbia

Serbia, largely its big brother state, still has some Muslims.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

Bosnia is about one half Muslim. I would have thought it would have been higher.

See graphs at links.

[mountaineer]

Hyperbole from NYT, which I'm sure has no problem with the destruction of a mostly Orthodox Christian nation.

[DB]

20% Muslim seems to be critical mass within a country.