The United States' needs would be served by working with Russia, according to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Tuesday in a Washington Examiner opinion piece.
Rohrabacher said the U.S. has cooperated with "morally objectionable" leaders Joseph Stalin of Russia and Mao of China to achieve goals including defeating Adolf Hitler and winning the Cold War. That "pragmatic thinking" is not permitted by "respectable society" today, Rohrabacher said.
"Post-Cold War thinking is bereft of such vision and leadership," Rohrabacher wrote.
Russia would be helpful in confronting radical Islam as well as keeping China in check, and working with them could lead to other successes.
"Absent the current levels of vitriol and hostility, we might just be able to resolve our differences over Syria, Iran, Ukraine, and other trouble spots."
Instead, Rohrabacher said that Russia and China have been growing closer.
"I do not know what strategic concepts they teach at our war colleges these days, but a strategy that causes our two main rivals to forge a deep alliance, and drives both farther and farther away from us, does not strike me as smart," he wrote.
He questioned the alleged collusion between Trump and Russia, saying it could be a way to cover up corruption in the Democratic National Committee.
"We cannot exclude the possibility that the DNC invented the Russia bogeymen to allow it to pass as the victim of a crime rather than the perpetrator of one," the congressman wrote in his opinion piece.
Russia should not be allowed a free pass, however, according to Rohrabacher.
"We should be tough on Russia when our interests are in conflict," he wrote.
The congressman had proposed a deal to get information on Russian leaks from the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 15 that Rohrabacher had proposed a deal to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly that would pardon Assange in exchange for proof that Russia did not hack emails that WikiLeaks published.
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