sombear said:
whiterock said:
sombear said:
whiterock said:
sombear said:
whiterock said:
sombear said:
Someone… anyone … please try to explain what Trump is doing.
he's manhandled Ukraine into coming to sign the trade deal. Now he's going to beat up on Russia just as bad as he's beat up on Ukraine, to get them to the table.
He's being even handed.
Makes perfect sense.
Even handed? He stopped all support and intel, and it costs numerous civilian and soldier deaths and led to a disaster in Kursk.
And on the same day (today) he first threatened Russia, he later said Russia did what anyone would do and expected them to do it. In other words, he knowingly allowed Russia to bomb civilian targets and encircle Ukrainian troops in Kursk.
when Zelensky signs the deal, the aid & intel will quietly resume, if for no other reason than to pressure Russia to come to the table. He's beating two ol' jersey cows who are sulling at the gate, trying to force them into the barn (peace talks).
But if the Europeans want to step up their game and send what it takes for Ukraine to soldier on for another 12-24 months, that's fine, too. In the short term, that will allow us to focus our resources on China and our debt/deficit. In the long term, that will finally make Nato a robust alliance, instead of primarily a US force with minor augmentation from various (and mostly reluctant) EU countries.
Trump is playing a win/win hand here.......
What's happening is pretty simple. Why do you refuse to see it?
I've mostly deferred to Trump on Ukraine for years.
But you have to blind and deaf to argue he's been tough on Russia. In words and actions, he's beating the hell out of our ally and treating Putin as a friend and partner.
He was tougher on Russia than Obama was, first POTUS to provide lethal aid to Ukraine. He was tough enough that Putin waited until after he left office to finish off the move on Ukraine.
He's flattered & courted & cajoled as needed to get Russia into dialogue (a necessary first step toward peace that Biden was unwilling to do). Then he battered & cudgeled Nato & Ukraine to give up the dream of outlasting Russia and sign a trade deal. And now that the trade deal appears back on track, he starts poking Russia again. This is what it could be expected to look like to get two people who hate one another to sit down and start talking about something they are not terribly interested in doing - ending the war. makes total sense. one has to double down on the neverTrump propaganda not to see it.
I know Trump's schtick irritates you. You are not alone in that. But as a result, you are getting sliced up by Occam's Razor pretty badly...... Words are easy. Deeds are hard. Let's see how it ends before we call anybody a stooge of anybody. Except for Sam. He's so far in Putins pajamas that anything is fair game.
Again, I still hold out hope Trump pulls this off, and I've posted that I still think it's possible this is all part of his plan. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to opine as we go. And I did not expect him to so openly hammer Zelensky and Ukraine and parrot Russia talking points in doing so.
I think the reason he's done that is because of EU intransigence. They are prepared to keep spending their money and ours to the bitter end, which will definitely cause Russian failure. Trump admin is looking bigger picture, trying not to make perfect (Russian collapse) the enemy of the good (Russia enfeeblement), in a context where the "good" is already achieved. thoroughly.
Trump's position is this: We have national debt and structural budget deficit that is a larger strategic threat than either Russia or China. And if we are going to stare down China over Taiwan, we cannot do it with status quo structure. Our weapons outclass China's but we cannot currently afford to build enough of them to destroy everything we need to destroy to defend what we need to defend. So Trump is ending Ukraine prematurely in order to stop the drain on our budget. And he's bashing Europeans relentlessly to get them to step up pay the cost of defending themselves (which they can do but don't want to). And he's going to use the relief of Ukraine and all the other deficit spending items to improve our deterrence against China.
It's a sound strategy, but effectively a 180 from status quo. He's going to thrash and scream and throw stuff until he get's his way, because it's likely the only way he'll get the battleship of state turned around where he wants to go (Pacific focus).
Nobody would like to see Russian collapse more than me. But it's going to cost us alone another $250b or so. And would doing that generate the virtually same benefits as declaring victory (which it is....Russia lost its bid to return Ukraine in entirety to RUssian policy) and repositioning to Asia? Hard to say no with any great conviction.
In a sense, Trump is addressing our weaknesses with strategic retreat. Few have called it that, and the admin would understandably push back such language, but it's hard not defend that it's not. We're disengaging from one fight to prepare better for a bigger one and doing in the face of $36T total debt with a $2T structural deficit.
