QUESTION #2: As nations are forced to take sides, what alignments do you see emerging and what kind of message are they receiving from the White House?
Answer:
Bill Koenig:
“Without a doubt, it’s so fascinating. Basically what has happened is, and that’s the genius of a blessing, or some ways fortunate situation of having Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State. He’s a straight shooter. People that work with him like him. He can sit there, whether it’s Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, or whether it’s Putin, and sit there eye to eye and say, “Who are you going to stand with? Are you going to be with us, U.S., Israel, Suni allies, or are you going to side with Iran?”
We all, Rex telling Putin, “We all know what Iran is after. We know what they’re up against. We have all the intelligence. We have all the security. We’ve seen what they’ve done across the Middle East, who are you going to side with?” Russia, at this point, has decided to continue to side with Iran, continue to side with Syria, keeping Assad in power. That is a very interesting dynamic in play there.
The other thing with North Korea. The fact that Trump, President Trump was having dinner with the president of China at the time 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were sent into Syria was surreal. Incredible timing. Most people would have thought, why did he wait for a day and a half, to two days later, but he wanted to send a message. My did he do that. He had a very good time. The Chinese press was very impressed. It was a very good couple of days together. The meetings went very well. Even the Chinese government press was very pleased. At the same time, he’s showing the Chinese president he’s serious.
This is a new, not to overuse this saying, “We have a new sheriff in town,” but we do. When you watch this, it was very interesting, it was right after General Mattis was approved by the senate 98 to 1, he jumped on a plane and went right to Korea, and then went to Japan and made statements that North Korea needs to be taken care of. Right after Secretary of State Tillerson was approved, he’s in Korea, he’s in Japan, he’s in China to meet with the Chinese President. Obviously, they are looking at the greatest threats to America’s security and future, and they’re addressing it, and they’re not allowing this to continue to go in the direction it has for the last two, or three, or four presidents.”
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