I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve got to give the president full credit where credit is due.

I’ve been blessed with a long and adventurous life, born just a couple of years after WWII. My father, having fought his way up the length of the Italian Peninsula from Salerno, was sent home immediately at the close of hostilities. That was the reward granted GIs who’d seen the most combat. As much as he’d come to love Italy and its people, he was relieved to be spared occupation duty and be able to resume his college education. I came into the world soon after.

During my lifetime the Berlin Airlift preserved West Germany’s future, the NATO Alliance and the United Nations were formed to prevent such horror from ever recurring, Israel became a nation, India won its independence, the Civil Rights movement sought to unify America for all, and the Vietnam war nearly tore us all apart. Russia launched the first satellite, then we put men on the moon. Polio was eradicated, and life saving organ transplants became routine. And in a sense WWII finally came to a true end when the Berlin Wall came down.

But never in my lifetime has Europe been so firmly united. Historically neutral Sweden and Finland joined NATO, and all of Europe set firm in its resolve to support Ukraine.

Despite decades of diplomacy, never before has Europe shared such a common purpose, become so closely bound together for the common good.

Trump, simply by turning his back on a courageous Ukraine in favor of the murderous Putin, trying but failing to humiliate the most effective war-time leader since Churchill, succeeded where none before him had. Europe, newly unified, is now stronger than it has ever been. 

I suppose he expects them to express their undying gratitude.

Mark Roye

Port Townsend