America has switched sides. No longer allied with Europe and opposing Russian aggression. Now we’re Russian flunkies.
Hyperbolic hot air? Tragically, no.
Defense Secretary Hegseth says Ukraine can’t realistically keep its borders — or ever join NATO. Throwing out four years of U.S. policy, and affirming exactly what Russia sought by invading Ukraine.
Then Trump, the great deal-maker, starts “negotiations” by giving away everything to be negotiated. Legitimizing Russia’s theft of Ukrainian territory, enshrining a new principle of international law: might makes right. Of course that’s actually an old principle — which we’d thought had been blessedly banished.
The consequences of its recrudescence can’t be overstated. Now we’re back to the law of the jungle. A much darker and more violent world.
Our new alignment with Russia is shown by Trump and Putin chummily joining to seal Ukraine’s fate, over the heads of the Europeans, who were supposed to be our partners, and of the Ukrainians themselves. President Zelensky is trying to be diplomatic, seeing no choice but to kiss up to Trump. NATO leaders are more candid.
Trump is all full of himself as the Great Peacemaker. Well, “peace” is easy to get if you surrender everything worth fighting for. And this will furthermore be a phony peace. Putin just pocketing his gains, free to come back for more later.
NATO membership for Ukraine might have forestalled that. By ruling it out, Trump throws Ukraine (what’s left of it) to the wolves. Moreover giving Putin a welcome time-out, enabling Russia to consolidate its gains while ending the pain it’s been suffering as their price, rebuild its economy and military, and prepare for the next assault.
Have we really forgotten 1938? British Prime Minister Chamberlain, proclaiming “Peace for our time,” trusted Hitler’s word that what the Munich pact gave him was enough. The next year he invaded Poland. Forgotten too is more recent history: the 1994 Budapest agreement, with Ukraine giving up its nukes in exchange for Russia’s guaranteeing its territorial integrity. Which Russia of course blatantly violated. Any similar pledges from Putin now, in a new Ukraine deal, would be a cruel joke.
Trump and Hegseth have validated the nonsense that Ukraine in NATO would threaten Russia’s security. As though NATO might invade Russia? The point of NATO was to counter the threat from Russia. By parroting the Kremlin line that NATO somehow improperly threatens Russia, Trump throws the alliance under the bus.
He even blames the war on Ukraine! (And on President Biden, for having endorsed eventual NATO membership. Wrong, Trump says.) Insulting our intelligence.
Is Trump a Russian agent? Or merely a fool? (Or both?)
Europe, meanwhile, made a huge mistake in conditioning Ukraine’s quest for NATO membership on checking off all sorts of boxes. They should have just rammed it through — stopping Russia in its tracks. The Russians would have screamed but would have had no option but settling down in acceptance. War with the whole alliance being unthinkable.
Even now, despite Trump, the Europeans should still rally against Russia’s atrocity. They could muster the resources. After all, it’s really their fight, in their backyard, with the threat being primarily against them. And while they have stepped up somewhat, it’s insufficient, not commensurate with the existential stakes.
The irony is that their short-sightedness will wind up costing them immensely more in the future. If Russia’s aggression is rewarded, and NATO neutered, they’ll be forced to spend far more on defense — more than the cost of stopping the Russian threat now by doing what it takes in Ukraine.
