Last summer, at the time of the Republican convention, Newt Gingrich was ready to defend Donald Trump on anything. That included Trump’s remarks on NATO. Estonia “is the suburbs of St. Petersburg,” Gingrich said. He said other things too.
Everyone in Estonia, and the rest of the Baltics, heard him. They were amazed, for several reasons. I have gone into this in my “Baltic Journal.” That journal concludes today, here.
In a way, Gingrich was right. While in Estonia, I had the sense of being on the front lines. And I thought of a phrase from George Washington: “blessed location.” Jeane Kirkpatrick liked to quote it (and, in fact, I learned it from her). America has a “blessed location.”
Sure, we have problems from Canada and Mexico from time to time. And from Cuba. But what a blessed, blessed location. Other people are up-close-and-personal with their trouble.
Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians have to watch Putin rehearse the invasion of them. It has happened before (invasion, occupation, and annexation). The Russian armed forces recently rehearsed the invasion of Scandinavia too.
Sweden was impelled to move troops back to Gotland, its island in the Baltic Sea. Denmark has an island called Bornholm, also in the Baltic Sea. Russia simulated a nuclear attack on it. The day of the simulation was not just any day: It was the day of Bornholm’s annual festival, which gathers the country’s entire political leadership.
A cool cat, Vlad is.
What is our connection to people in Europe, including Eastern and Northeastern Europe? Why is our security related to theirs? I have explored that throughout my journal.
Anyway, these are interesting and important questions, and I was struck again and again by how lucky we are — or “blessed,” to use Washington’s word. We have our problems, as this election cycle has made clear, but other people have problems that we don’t.