The war is going Russia's way and they won't leave Donbass and give it up. The globalists purposely goaded Russia into rolling in there having them shelling the people there thinking they could break Russia no problem with sanctions and the rest and all they have gotten is Ukraine hammered and made the US ability to have power with the petrodollar over the rest of the world shrink by pulling this. Now leverage we would have had before against China etc is diminished because of the naive Biden administration that thought social media tweets were a real weapon of war.
lol, this admin is a joke. The whole basis of the “summit”, that doesn’t even include the country being in invaded, is based on a misinterpretation of what Putin meant. So now, Trump,will want to save face and make a deal from the new starting point, despite the fact that we have no right to speak on behalf of all the actual affected parties.
Precisely. The sneaky con man started talking about being all tough on Russia recently. But then he switched up and changed it to giving Pooty-bud some face time, and coercing Ukraine to give up territory. Sneaky ole con man. Just think how many people (nobody outside his minions) probably fell for the same nonsense yet one more time? Winning! Merica!
Exactly what I was suggesting earlier. The U.S. is not in a position to surrender portions of Ukraine or even to compel Ukraine to surrender portions of its country. We are, however, in a position to increase pain on Russia. So frankly I don’t see as much of a downside to these direct talks. If the outcome is as bad as you think, then Ukraine and Europe will say “no thanks” and continue the war with or without us.
Yes, we are in a position to force Ukraine to take a deal. They will not like it but we can force them to do it.
How? I see how we can encourage them or incentivize them, but force them? With what leverage? This is not 1953 or 1973 where we have actual forces in the field standing between our hosts and their enemies and are providing the overwhelming proportion of military aid. We can threaten to fully abandon support of Ukraine, but that would not compel our allies to do the same, and Ukraine is providing a much greater proportion of its own support than either South Korea or South Vietnam. Further, if we threaten to wash our hands of Ukraine, then the President is at risk of losing the victories he has recently attained with NATO, persuading member nations to take on a more fair share of the burden in Europe. Much of what was agreed was predicated on not abandoning Ukraine to its fate. Forcing Russia to take a deal it does not like seems far more suitable, feasible, and acceptable under the circumstances we have today.
Just take my word for it. It would be really ugly and it would burn a ton of bridges like you say but it could happen.
Nothing this admin does or doesn't do would surprise me at this point. I just continue to hope and pray, that even if it is by accident, the US can help resolve this conflict in a way that mostly saves Ukraine's ass and doesn't send a message to warmongers that invasion is the best way to solve problems.
I hear you. Obviously, that could happen. I do not think it likely for the reasons I have stated. Even if that scenario is what the President would prefer to happen, the structural constraints bind his agency much more than he would like to admit. He has far more agency in pressuring Russia than he does in pressuring Ukraine.
Trump seems to be following the same model that he did when he negotiated the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. His representative negotiated with the Taliban leadership while failing to give the then government of Afghanistan a seat at the table. This week he will be negotiating with Putin while failing to give Zelensky a seat at the table. Although I'm not predicting it I wouldn't be surprised if Trump enters into an agreement with Putin in which he sells out Ukraine while proclaiming that he was negotiated "peace in our time" like the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did after he sold out Czechoslovakia in Munich in 1938. I suspect that Putin is looking forward to the meeting since he has confidence that play Trump once again like he did in the past.
The big difference between Afghanistan and Ukraine is the one I have been speaking to: GIRoA was wholly dependent on U.S. support; Ukraine is not. The option of selling out Afghanistan to get a better deal with Iran (which we never got) was there, however stupid and lacking of foresight. We don't really have that option with Ukraine. We can make Ukraine life's harder to be sure. But then again we can do the same thing to Russia on orders of magnitude while bringing valued allies closer instead of alienating them needlessly. The choice of which party to leverage for concessions in this war is no choice at all.
Agree Trump is like a mafia boss — but Russia invading Ukraine isn’t like two “mafia families” fighting. It’s more like a gang of thugs relentlessly attacking someone’s home, while the homeowner fights to keep them out. They destroy the house, kidnap children, rape women, and torture & kill the sons. And mafia boss Trump says, “Sure, we’ll help — for a price.” Or now it will be…. “My friend, mafia boss Putin “promises” he will stop if you surrender the land he’s currently stealing. Let’s just all appease Mr. Putin.”
I would agree that the situations of Afghanistan and Ukraine aren't completely parallel for the reasons that you cited. My concern is that after Trump's meeting with Putin Ukraine may again after to rely entirely on European countries for weapons that it cannot manufacture on its own. The one consultation is that US arms producers Raytheon coming immediately to mind could pressure Trump not to withdraw from his recently negotiated agreement under which Ukraine is receiving US manufactured weapons through European countries.
I agree that Trump has lots of stakeholders pressuring him not to do the course of action some seem to fear. The defense industry is one. The coalition of liberal democracies is another. The pro-Ukrainian Republicans (not an insignificant part of his Party) are yet another. All together, that is a considerable group to tell to [stuff] itself when you need all of them for other parts of the agenda considered by Trump to be more important than Ukraine. For instance, those allies are some of the same we need to effect the President’s strategy to contain the CCP.
Defense contractors would like to sell military supplies to Europe and Ukraine for use in Ukraine. It’s a business decision for them.
The naive administration was not Biden's--it's Trump's. Biden was not just relying on sanctions and tweets. He supplied Ukraine with more weapons than Trump did. He started supplying Ukraine with intelligence. The purpose of Biden's tweets was to inform the U.S. population of the need to support Ukraine and oppose Russian expansionism, not to end the war in any way. Trump cut off the supply of weapons, like a coward, convincing his followers that he was saving money. Trump's tweets and speeches were clownish attempts to beg Putin to stop fighting, or attempts to bully Zelenskyy to give up his land. The war is not "going Russia's way". Russia would have control of Kiev by now if it were going their way. They are having all kinds of problems financing this war (and their own economy), and those problems will only increase as time goes by. Their military grows less capable as time goes by as experienced and well-trained troops die off. This is a repeat of their Afghanistan debacle at a much greater scale. If Ukraine can hold out long enough, it will end more or less like Afghanistan did for Russia. With a troop pullout, tails between their legs, and Ukraine celebrating their freedom and looking forward to reconstruction (paid for partially by seized Russian money). And no, the West never "goaded" Russia into invading Ukraine. Putin did that all on his own, for minerals and farmland, as well as "living room" and slaves (subservient subjects). No one forced him to do anything. Trump thought his lies and foolish bluffs would end this war. His first lie was that he, and only he, could end the war on Day 1 of his presidency. He failed miserably. It was obvious he had no plan whatsoever. Basically, he assumed that the Nobel Peace Prize was his just for showing up and telling a few lies. He was wrong. By supporting Putin in this war, Trump is weakening democracy, freedom, and international rule of law, as well as weakening the position of the United States to influence future events. His attempts to save us a few billion dollars will cost us more than a few trillion dollars in future defense spending. Trump will be known as the textbook definition of a fool and an idiot who was in way over his head as a global leader, much less a leader of the free world.
