‘Let he who tied the bell on the tiger take it off’
So said China’s President Xi Jinping, alluding to who is responsible for reigning in Vladimir Putin from his vicious and unlawful military assault on Ukraine.
So, who tied the bell on the Russian Tiger?
I would suggest:
The first bell was tied on the Tiger when Trump sought Russia’s cooperation in a US election.
The next bell on the tiger was Trump’s un-ending praise of Putin and other autocrats.
More bells were attached with 4 years of Trump trashing NATO alliances.
And then there was that big bell when Trump sided with Putin over US intelligence agencies, for everyone to see, in Helsinki.
Another bell on the Tiger was the Trump administration turning its back on the Kurds and letting Russia have its way in Syria.
So, President Xi is correct; America did indeed put the bell on the Tiger. A fuck-load of bells. Christ, with so many bells, we could name that Tiger Jingles.
Biden is dealing with a Russian Tiger, belled by 4 years of praise and appeasement from a thug-loving autocratic-wanna-be President who hated our NATO allies.
And now Putin, the belled Russian Tiger, is terrorizing Ukraine, murdering innocent men, women, and children.
I have my own proverb:
The belled tiger is less restrained and more dangerous after 4-years of an orange bull in Western Democracy’s China Closet.
Like a bull in a China Closet, former President Trump obliterated the norms of liberal western democracy in favor of autocratic principals, opening the door to a terroristic Tiger.
bendingtheneedle 