Dancing Surrender Monkey
Now we know what the 2024 election was all about! Trump, through his underqualified and often inebriated "defence secretary" Pete Hegseth, has finally laid his cards on the table. Basically, Orange Hitler's position is one of total surrender to a battered and bruised Vladimir Putin.
The position outlined by Hegseth is more what you would expect from a Vichy French diplomat sometime in July 1940 than a "Make America Great Again" blowhard like Trump.
The main points are:
(1) No 1991 borders for Ukraine, i.e. essentially letting Putin keep all the parts of the Ukraine he now holds and then recognizing it
(2) No NATO membership for Ukraine
(3) No US peacekeeping troops in Ukraine
(4) No Article 5 protection for European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine
(5) Ukraine to pay for previous US aid with 500 billion worth of its minerals
Make no mistake about it, this is a craven surrender (and extortion) by Trump and the USA in the face of a blatant aggressor, which has already had its guts ripped out with almost a million Russian casualties since the war began.
Trump is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory while trying to have a share of the spoils.
Russia is already crumbling. A few more months of even the lukewarm kind of support that America gave under Biden would be enough to cause its final collapse, followed by a heart-warming "Ceausescu moment" for Putin on the end of a rope or a meat hook.
Russia is already crumbling. A few more months of even the lukewarm kind of support that America gave under Biden would be enough to cause its final collapse, followed by a heart-warming "Ceausescu moment" for Putin on the end of a rope or a meat hook.
Trump is trying to disguise how pathetic his peace plan is by pretending the whole thing is simply a "little, local European problem" that he has kindly deigned to smile on. This is why it is essential for him that no US troops be involved and for America to get some free minerals out of it. The Ukraine meanwhile is to get nothing -- no land returned, no real security, no reparations, and a much diminished economic future.
In effect, what Trump is doing is waving the white flag and then quickly pressing it into the hands of the Europeans so that they will be the only ones to look weak.
Their best option is to say "fuck you, Trump," cast it aside, and keep helping Ukraine until Russia cracks. But Trump is counting on them being too used to their former cosy relationship with America to do that. However, that relationship is a former relationship and simply does not exist anymore.
Now would also be a good time for Europe to sever its ties with America, break up NATO, and do a deal with China. Together they could divide up the vast space uselessly occupied for so long by the criminal Russian state. This would also undermine Tariff Man and help reduce America to what it has always craved to be, a sleepy regional power, living the simple life, instead of a global superpower.
My guess is the Europeans won't have the balls to do all this, but I think they will have enough twisted passive aggression to find a way to derail this low-grade piece of diplomatic detritus, along with Trump's equally ludicrous peace plan for Gaza.
My guess is the Europeans won't have the balls to do all this, but I think they will have enough twisted passive aggression to find a way to derail this low-grade piece of diplomatic detritus, along with Trump's equally ludicrous peace plan for Gaza.
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
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