>>In order to discourage countries from siding with Russia, we bought their friendship by looking the other way when they put up those tariffs.
Yep. The US tried for decades to be cheerful rich Uncle Bob to the world and look at the thanks it got you. A couple of terms of Dennis the Menace will do a world of good (literally)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
