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Trump was elected in part on promises to avoid “endless wars” of the sort that cost American blood and treasure in Afghanistan and Iraq but without resulting in strategic advantage or civilized calm.
Yet as a Jacksonian, Trump also restored American deterrence through punitive strikes against ISIS and terrorist thugs like Baghdadi and Soleimani—without being bogged down in costly follow-ups. During the last four administrations, Putin stayed within his borders only during the Trump four years.
But upon entering office, Trump will likely still be faced with something far more challenging as he confronts what has become the greatest European killing field since World War II—the cauldron on the Ukrainian border that has likely already cost 1-1.5 million combined dead, wounded, and missing Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and civilians.
There is no end in sight after three years of escalating violence. But there are increasing worries that strategically logical and morally defensible—but geopolitically dangerous—Ukrainian strikes on the Russian interior will nonetheless escalate and lead to a wider war among the world’s nuclear powers.
Many on the right wish for Trump to immediately cut off all aid to Ukraine for what they feel is an unwinnable war, even if that abrupt cessation would end any leverage with which to force Putin to negotiate.
They claim the war was instigated by a globalist left, serving as a proxy conflict waged to ruin Russia at the cost of Ukrainian soldiers. They see it orchestrated by a now non-democratic Ukrainian government, lacking elections, a free press, or opposition parties, led by an ungracious and corrupt Zelensky cadre that has allied with the American left in an election year.
In contrast, many on the left see Putin’s invasion and the right’s weariness with the costs of the conflict as the long-awaited global proof of the Trump-Russian “collusion” unicorn. Thus, after the 2016 collusion hoax and 2020 laptop disinformation ruse, they see in some of the right’s opposition to the war at last proof of the Russophiliac Trump perfidy. They judge Putin, not China’s imperialist juggernaut, as the real enemy and discount the dangers of a new Russia-China-Iran-North Korean axis. And to see Ukraine utterly defeat Russia, recover all of the Donbass and Crimea, and destroy the Putin dictatorship, they are willing again to feed the war to the last Ukrainian while discounting escalating Russian threats to use tactical nuclear weapons to prevent defeat.
Trump has vowed to end the catastrophe on day one by doing what is now taboo: calling Vladimir Putin and making a deal that would do the now impossible: entice Russia back to its February 24, 2022, borders before it invaded and thus preserve a reduced but still autonomous and secure Ukraine.
How could Trump pull that unlikely deal off?
Ostensibly, he would follow the advice of a growing number of Western diplomats, generals, scholars, and pundits who have reluctantly outlined a general plan to stop the slaughter.
But how could Putin reassure the Russian people of anything short of an absolute annexation of Ukraine after the cost of one million Russian casualties?
Perhaps in the deal, Putin could brag that he institutionalized forever his 2014 annexations of once Russian-speaking majority Donbass and Crimea; that he prevented Ukraine from joining NATO on the doorstep of Mother Russia; and that he achieved a strategic coup in aligning Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea in a new grand alliance against the West and particularly the United States, with the acquiescence if not support of NATO member Turkey and an ever more sympathetic India.
And what would Ukraine and the West gain from such a Trump art of the deal?
Kyiv might boast that, as the bulwark of Europe, Ukraine heroically saved the country from Russian annexation as envisioned in the 2022 attempt to decapitate Kyiv and absorb the entire country. Ukraine subsequently was armed by the West and fought effectively enough to stymie the Russian juggernaut, wound and humiliate the Russian military, and sow dissension within the vastly weakened Russian dictatorship, as evidenced by the assassinated would-be insurgent Prigozhin.
Trump then might pull off the agreement if he could further establish a DMZ between the Russian and Ukrainian borders and ensure European Union economic aid for a fully armed Ukraine that might deter an endlessly restless Russian neighbor.
It would admittedly be a shaky and questionable deal, given Putin’s propensity to break his word and insidiously and endlessly seek to reestablish the borders of the old Soviet Union.
How then would Trump pull such a grand bargain off, given the hatred shown him by the American left for “selling out Zelensky,” the likely furor from the MAGA base of giving even one cent more than the current $200 billion to Ukraine, and its “endless war,” and the ankle biting from the Europeans who would be relieved by the end of hostilities on its borders but loathe to give any credit to Trump, whom they detest?
What would be the incentives for any such deal, and would they be contrary to both the interests of the American people and the new Republican populist-nationalist coalition?
Yet consider that if Trump were to cut all support for Ukraine, the right would see Ukraine become shortly absorbed—and it would be blamed for a humiliation comparable to the Kabul catastrophe, only worse, since Ukraine, unlike the Afghanistan mess, required only American arms, not our lives.
In contrast, if the endless war grinds on and on, at some point, the pro-war and so-called humanitarian left will be permanently stamped as the callous party of unending conflict and utterly indifferent to the consumption of Ukrainian youth, spent to further its endless vendetta against a Russian people who also are worn out by the war.
Both Russia and Ukraine are running out of soldiers, with escalating casualties that will haunt them for decades. Russia yearns to be free of sanctions and to sell oil and gas to Europe. The West, and the U.S. in particular, would like to triangulate Russia against China and vice versa, in Kissingerian style, and thus avoid any two-power nuclear standoff.
America wants to increase and stockpile its munitions with an emboldened China on the horizon. It is dangerously exhausted by defense cuts and massive aid to Ukraine and Israel while preferring allies like Israel that can win with a few billion rather than perhaps lose after receiving $200 billion. The Republican Party is now becoming the party of peace, and Trump, the Jacksonian, nonetheless the most reluctant president to spend American blood and treasure abroad in memory.
Europe is mentally worn out by the war and increasingly reneging on its once boastful unqualified support for Ukraine. So, it hopes the demonized Trump can both end the hated war and then be blamed for ending it without an unconditional Ukrainian victory.
In short, there are lots of parties who want, and lots of incentives for, an end to our 21st-century Verdun.
That little twerp Zelensky wants WWIII, he wouldn’t even wait for Putin to ‘sabre rattle’ as a necessary step in the lead up to a Trump peace deal…
Putin has since formally declared parts of eastern Ukraine to be Russian territory. So asking him to go back to the 2022 status quo is to ask Putin to be fine with Ukrainian control of what he is now calling Russian land. It won’t work, Trump will fail and then scapegoat Biden.
it’s always entertaining when bed wetting retards like this one show up and make ignorant comments.
Russia had no choice but to help the Russian speaking people trapped in a belligerent Ukraine . Let the people vote if they want to be part of Ukraine or Russia .
Trump should end the War and get a Nobel Peace Prize just to make Liberals and Liberal Democrats pull their hair in frustration Better then when they gave it to Obama
The only people who want the war to continue are those involved in the military industrial complex.
I am about as conservative as it gets, but I see Ukraine as similar to late 1930s Czechoslovakia and Germany. To me it is a question of right or wrong and and freedom, Putin is wrong. Politics or cost may cause the US to do what is wrong, but it still doesn’t make it right.
I don’t see it that way . I believe the Russians and Putin have sorta changed places with the Biden administration . where Putin is supporting freedom and the U.S. is supporting global communism But i think Trump will reverse course again
Trump could end this war by not funding it. (Gee why didn’t Democrats think of that?) Like a child with an allowance.
You can’t make a deal with Putin because you can’t trust Putin. His ego and delusion makes him believe he can reconstitute the Russian Empire. He will look at any deal as an opportunity to rearm and restart the war when he chooses, either in Ukraine or somewhere else.
The only way to stop someone like Putin is to stop him. We should have learned that from the last century. There is evil and Putin is evil. You can’t negotiate with evil.
Ukraine may not be a perfect country. No country is perfect. But the West cannot let Ukraine fall to Putin. Putin won’t stop with Ukraine.
The U.S and NATO has to give Ukraine all of the weapons it wants with no restrictions on their use for as long as it takes.
Any peace deal, if there is a deal to be made, has to be with the consent of Ukraine. We should not force Ukraine into any deal with Putin. The Ukraine people are the ones fighting and dying. And they are fighting and dying for all of us.
Sorry, but the best Ukraine could do would be to fight to a stalemate. That should have been clear early on. Russia is more populous with a larger army, larger economy, and larger resource base. It’s nuclear armed, and has several nuclear allies, and so could more easily maintain an offensive posture, and thus could not be defeated.
I don’t think Ukraine can win. They will have to make a peace deal with Russian and they will not be happy about it. If not, more young people into the grinder. It is odd that the Left does not realize how awful Iran, China and North Korea are. We should keep our eyes on China – and its alliance with Russia.
The first step to end the war is for NATO and the US to insure that Ukraine does not ever become a NATO member and it has to be ironclad, and not to be able to be violated as the previous agreements were by NATO and the US.
I agree with you NATO has been the one causing trouble not Russia . Look what NATO di d to Yugoslavia .. I doubt Russia would have ever invaded Ukraine if NATO had not run a illegal coup in Ukraine in 2014 .
My understanding is eastern Ukrainian culture and language is Russian, western Ukrainian culture and language is Ukrainian, and the middle of the country is a mixed mess of both. Sounds like a challenge with a solution that will make no one happy.
Trumpy said he’ll end the Ukraine war within a week and we all know he will. I don’t know what he’ll say, threaten or do but but we all know how persuasive he is.
I have yet to see credit given to Trump for the failure of Russia’s attempt on Kiev: after Obama refused to make good on the Congressionally approved sale of
Javelins to Ukraine, Trump sent them early; the tank busters made a junk yard of the land invasion. If Putin could not have the country he would destroy it, as he did Chechnya.
Putin has rehabilitated Stalin, and most Russians love him for it. Offspring of Ukrainians who survived the famine Stalin created have little use Stalin or Putin or Russia. Whose polls should we believe on Putin popularity in Eastern Ukraine–Putin’s? Suckers for Putin propaganda abound here as everywhere.
“Better Red than dead” will never go away. Shall we roll over for every imperialist tyrant who threatens us with the ‘N’ word? Give Putin the Omblast and then what?
Latvia? Finland? Xi and Kim are watching…you can make the capitalist running dogs run scared with a word or two. Xi doesn’t even need that with his infiltrated army of border-crossing saboteurs waiting for orders.
Ukraine was the only thing Biden ever got right.
I’m confused. I thought Trump was going to end the war in one day. Maybe withdrawing support for Ukraine will cause Ukraine to surrender in one day. Anyone want to make a wager?