Chris Matthews said it best, ..."We Are the Stakes"

It's a beautiful sunny day in my corner of the country. Everyday, when I turn on my television, I am reminded that peace is fragile.We are not assured of peace tomorrow, at this juncture in history, the betting odds are against peace.

It is imperative for our President to do all that he can to keep America safe, while making wise decisions that include a well-informed and diversified counsel of experts, advising him. He cannot afford the luxury of initiating careless and hasty policies that would endanger America and draw us into another war. He should know that Americans are "war weary". According to Brown University, our government has spent $4.79 trillion dollars since 2001 in war debt. What has America gained in return for that debt?

Government bureaucrats talk about so called, "entitlement" programs going bust and search for safe places to make budget cuts. Perhaps, our elected officials need to consider the "war budget"? If Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid goes broke, after all the taxes I've paid into the programs, before I receive any benefit from the money deducted from my paychecks,...I want a refund! They can take my refund from the defense budget or Trump's travel budget to the weekend White House down in Florida at Mar-a-lago.

More importantly, than the money, is how Pres. Trump deals with the threats from North Korea and it's nuclear tipped missiles (ICBM) program aimed at the long shoreline of  America. The other major issue is how Pres. Trump deals with Russia over the Syrian conflict, that could potentially begin WWIII.

Neither of these scenarios, are irrelevant to the safety and security of America,... and the world. I am glad that Pres. Trump has openly declared that he no longer thinks NATO is obsolete. Trump seems to have learned that NATO's membership is an important alliance in maintaining some measure of the world's stability.

When I watched Chris Matthews on MSNBC today, he was discussing Pres. Trump's meeting with NATO Sec. Gen. Jens Stoltenberg. The about face turn, that Pres. Trump verbalized to the world today, regarding his new found knowledge and understanding about the importance of NATO's role in handling problems of international foreign policy, was a positive step forward. Pres. Trump's amateur attempts at making Presidential foreign policy, previously shocked and horrified his onlookers around the world. Today, he showed he is beginning to understand the useful value of education, in the tools of foreign policy. He no longer brags on his own self-sufficiency and brilliance in the art of making deals, as a celebrity in the glare of the camera lights. He will be America's President for another 1,377 days, at least now, he is headed in the right direction. It is possible that Trump is actually growing into the job.

Chris Matthews, said something that was profoundly important at the final crux of his report. Matthews succinctly crystallized his blunt admonition saying, "The stakes are high,...and we are the stakes".