On Superpower Suicide And the recovery of justice -Timothy Snyder: US kills its own power

[mike_c]

3. honestly, I don't think Putin or anyone else needs to give him orders

All they have to do is flatter him and make him want whatever they want him to do. He's a pushover for anyone who strokes his ego or sets an example of behavior that he views as self aggrandizing if he follows it, e.g. his ballroom modeled after the trappings of European monarchies. He wants a bigger and more expensive palace. He wants a bigger triumphal arch. A big underground bunker, because, you know, Putin has one. Wars, because ---fill in the blank-- has one. Pictures of himself all over everything, because monarchs and despots put their image on money, and passports, and heroic posters all over town. On and on and on. He's still an insecure child, forever in search of validation.

I don't think Bibi told him to attack Iran. All he had to do was model it for him to make Trump think that's what he should do, too. "I'll be your friend if you do this friendly thing with me." It was a whim, inspired by somebody in a club he desperately wants to belong to.