Winston Churchill is credited with saying that America does the right thing after exhausting the alternatives. Donald Trump has turned that aphorism on its head. In the past 10 days, he has all but incinerated 80 years of postwar American leadership. Those who thought America was a friend or ally, notably Ukraine and Nato, are dropping once safe assumptions to cope with a world in which America is an unabashed predator. Countries that were treated by Washington as adversaries, notably Vladimir Putin’s Russia, are suddenly America’s friend.
「在嘗試了所有選擇後，美國總會做出正確的決定。」這句話被認爲出自溫斯頓•丘吉爾(Winston Churchill)。唐納•川普(Donald Trump)將這句格言顛倒過來。在過去10天裏，他幾乎毀掉了戰後80年來的美國領導地位。向來以爲美國是朋友或盟友的實體，尤其是烏克蘭和北約(NATO)，正在放棄曾經萬無一失的假設，轉而應對美國是一個肆無忌憚的掠食者的世界。過去被華盛頓方面視爲對手的國家，尤其是弗拉迪米爾•普丁(Vladimir Putin)的俄羅斯，突然成了美國的朋友。