NATO, you’ll be pleased to hear, according to Donald Trump, is no longer obsolete. This quality, of having become obsolete and then having mysteriously ceased to be obsolete puts NATO in some outstanding company.
The Cold War was obsolete. Not any more.
Remember when torture was obsolete? It’s easy to remember but still somehow hard to imagine, so thorough has its revitalization been.
The Ku Klux Klan has been obsolete at least a couple of times in U.S. history. Somehow it’s just stopped being obsolete.
Talk of using nuclear weapons is back.
The establishment of a state religion sure used to be obsolete too.
What about piracy, or at least gangs of mercenaries? Really, what is there that can’t cease being obsolete? Bone saws? Human sacrifice? Trial by ordeal? Dueling?
The procedure for making something stop being obsolete is very clear. Just make it profitable or horrible enough for Donald Trump, or both.
The U.S. Congress is about to challenge Bibi Netanyahu’s applause record for Jens Stoltenberg. It’s a good thing NATO was unobsoleted first.