Is anyone surprised that the Russians offered bounties to the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American and British troops?
Outraged, yes. But surprised, probably not.
Russia is our enemy, after all, notwithstanding President Donald Trump’s continuing infatuation with all things Russian. You may recall Trump’s invitation to Vladimir Putin to attend the next G-7 meeting and his unrelenting push to reshape the Group of Seven leading industrial nations to a G-8 club that includes Russia, which was excluded after Putin ordered the invasion of Crimea in 2014.
But what should be as surprising as it is outrageous is that intelligence sources have told several news organizations – The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among others – that Trump, Pence and the National Security Council and European allies were briefed about the development in March.
They were briefed, and neither our president nor our vice president did anything about it.