Trump is getting played on Ukraine: appeasement is never the answer.

For many political junkies, the last year of watching the left melt down under the weight of their sheer incompetence and political stupidity have been complete theater. Comedic does adequately cover it.

Today, I’m looking around and by and large, I’m happy with the actions that have taken place, particularly since November.

But my spider sense have begun to tingle a bit…. Over Ukraine.

Generally, those on the right have been condemning US support for Ukraine post Russian invasion. I’ve been seeing it, repeatedly, since the first aid package went out.  For example, President Trump blamed Ukraine for the invasion.

Yup.  That’s right. It’s all Ukraine’s fault.

Much like rape victim is at fault for being raped.

Here’s the reality: Ukraine was invaded because Biden stupidly (and publicly) announced that US ground forces would not be committed to Ukraine’s defense.

Now we have an obligation to that defense. People may not like it, but it’s true.

With the end of the Soviet Union, Ukraine found itself a nuclear power. As I recall, approximately 700 nuclear warheads were left in Ukrainian hands when the USSR dissolved.

In return for various promises and small amounts of funding (small being a relative term) Ukraine agreed to give up the entirety of their newly acquired nuclear arsenal.

Among these promises was an agreement by the parties… the US, Russia and the UK… to

Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders (in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act).

The agreement has twice been ignored: first during the Crimean incursion under Obama and now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It’s understandable, if not justifiable, for Russia to invade Ukraine, given the obvious foreign policy stupidity of Obama and Biden: cowardice is never a good look, yet that’s exactly what the United States was projecting in their dealings with Putin… then… and sadly, now.

Putin has publicly stated that he intends to resuscitate the Warsaw Pact and place it under Russian control, ala the Cold War years.

While Ukraine has not been a NATO member but were, in fact, part of the Warsaw Pact, there several members of NATO who were also Warsaw Pact members.

These include Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, which became NATO members in 1999. Additionally, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined NATO shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit. Albania and Croatia joined on April 1, 2009, before the 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit. Montenegro and North Macedonia.

It’s likely that these former Soviet vassals would not willingly return to the Putin Fold, so to speak. He is well aware of that fact, but with his invasion of Ukraine, he’s show a willingness to ignore agreements whenever it suits him.

So, in Trump’s efforts to sell out Ukraine, we have a situation almost in lockstep with the sellout of what was then the Czechoslovakia, the Munich Agreement of 1938, where then UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was wont to say “I believe we have peace in our time,” or some such short-sighted babble.

Eleven months later, Hitler invaded Poland. And the rest, as they say, is history.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waving an utterly worthless piece of paper around, declaring that he "believe it is peace for our time."

There can be only one outcome to the Russo-Ukraine war that will result in any lasting peace.

Russia must be treated the exact, same, way that Germany was treated at the end of World War Two.

There can be no permanent peace in the region unless Putin and his minions, along with those who committed atrocities in Ukraine are held accountable for their actions in this matter.

That includes reparations both to the Ukraine and the other countries, including the US, who funded Ukraine’s defense.

Hundreds of billions in damages and costs.

Russian leadership must be put on trial.  Russian soldiers and civilians who committed any of the 10’s of thousands of war crimes in that country must be held accountable for their actions.

And none of that will happen.

Like Czechoslovakia, Ukraine is being ignored in the negotiating process. Like Hitler in ‘38, Putin knows any agreement is worthless, that rewarding him for his invasion and slaughter of Ukrainian civilians with the permanent annexation of roughly 1/3^rd of the country is but a temporary sideshow to his bigger plan of reestablishing the Warsaw Pact.

Imagine the ending of the World War requiring the continuation of the Nazi control of Germany and the lands they conquered at the end of the war, and the war mongers continuing control of Japan and the lands still in their control at the end of the war?

No war crimes trials. No accountability. No punishment of any kind. No accountability. Nothing.

What’s the difference?

The lesson this teaches Russia is the same lesson the US has taught the rest of the world since 1953:

No matter what the US says, no matter how many are killed or maimed, no matter how much damage is done, no matter who started it, no matter how much we’ve spent…

At some point, the United States will cave because our word is as worthless as Putin’s.

This so-called peace deal appears to do nothing but a box checked on a campaign promise list. It’s as worthless as the US response to the invasion itself (Anyone with a functioning brain knew that these so-called sanctions would make any difference where it mattered: on the battlefield.) and besides rewarding Putin for his invasion, it will give his military time to reorganize, retrain and resupply.

And then what?

When the time comes to meet our NATO commitments as Putin invades some other country who happens to be a NATO member, do we ignore our agreements there as well?  What other parts of Europe will we negotiate away?

In an alternative universe, how much of the United States would we give away to attain “peace in our time?”

Where is the line? What do we do when it’s crossed? Why WOULDN’T Putin invade a NATO country?  After all, he wasn’t held responsible for his Ukraine invasion, why would he not continue with his expansionist plans to take over the eastern third of Europe, his ultimate goal? Apparently, he has absolutely nothing to lose.

How does selling out Ukraine impact that in the least?

Hating support for Ukraine that we’ve paid for because it came from Biden ignores the practical and strategic realities in the region. But let’s all remember as President Trump constantly reminds us the invasion of Ukraine would not have happened had he been in office.

Had we publicly announced US support of Ukraine in terms of defending them… this invasion never would have happened under Biden, either. But leftists generally lack the needed courage to stare bullies down. To publicly announce we wouldn’t do that gave Putin the open invitation he was looking for and he took it.

And now, I would appear that President Trump is compounding that mistake in Chambelainesque ways that will make Churchill spin in his crypt.

We’ve spent a lot of money in Ukraine. And Ukraine has spent a lot of blood.

If Putin is not contained and held accountable in Ukraine now?

What we’ll have to spend in terms of blood and treasure in the future will make this look like a middle school candy fundraiser in comparison. And we WILL have to spend it.

Appeasement as a foreign policy plank was a disaster in 1938.

It’s no less a disaster today. But that is what President Trump seems to be advocating.

Will it be worth the enslavement and slaughter of thousands to check a box on a campaign promise list for the media victory lap?

I, for one, don’t believe that the course he should… or needs… needs to take.

Trump snaps back at Zelenskyy, blaming Ukraine for the war

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-snaps-back-at-zelenskyy-blaming-ukraine-for-the-war/ar-AA1zjrKU