Editorial Cartoon by Michael de Adder/The Globe and Mail
Marco Levytsky, Editorial Writer.
It’s been over a week since U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, dubbed the “Fiasca in Alaska” by Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne, and the follow up meeting in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and selected European leaders. However, peace in Ukraine remains as elusive as before, despite some progress having been made with respect to security guarantees for Ukraine. In particular, about a dozen countries have indicated their readiness to send their troops to Ukraine to support a new peace initiative and guarantee security after the end of hostilities. While the U.S. will not send any troops, Trump has agreed to provide air support.
But before that can happen, hostilities must end, and there is no sign whatsoever that Russia is willing to stop. On August 21, Russia carried out one of the largest aerial attacks of the war, launching more than 600 drones and missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. The main problem lies with self-designated “peacemaker” Trump and his stubborn refusal to apply any pressure on Putin.
Although he has repeatedly threatened to impose “massive sanctions or massive tariffs” upon Russia if it refuses to stop its genocidal aggression against Ukraine, Trump has allowed several unheeded bi-weekly deadlines to pass without lifting a finger. Instead, he has continued to extend by “two more weeks” a seemingly endless series of toothless ultimatums to Putin, who has then openly, brazenly and flagrantly ignored each one.
As if oblivious to Putin’s intransigence with respect to all previous demands, on August 21, Trump called upon Putin to meet one-on-one with Zelensky within “a couple of weeks”. That, of course, amounts to a non-starter for Zelenskyy, since the only way Putin would agree to meet with him would be for the Ukrainian President to come to Moscow, where his life would very much be at risk. Asked by CNN’s Alayna Treene if there’s a possibility Trump would do nothing if Putin ignores his latest ultimatum, the U.S. President said, “We’ll see. I’ll see whose fault it is.” Is Trump so stupid that he still can’t see “whose fault it is”?
And if there was any hope that the solid support European leaders showed for Ukraine, while bending over backwards to massage Trump’s ego in their August 18 meeting with him, it was quashed the very next morning. Speaking with Fox and Friends, Trump accused European leaders of “playing cute” during that meeting, falsely claimed that Kyiv had started the war (“you don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size”), and invented his own version of the region’s history. He falsely claimed that former President Barack Obama had approved the legal transfer of Crimea to Russian control in 2014 and that the Ukraine conflict was a result of NATO’s expansion following the end of the Cold War.
Trump also publicly indicated that he was sympathetic to Putin’s demand for the entire eastern region of Donbas to be ceded to Russia in any negotiations. “Donbas, right now, as you know, is 79 per cent owned and controlled by Russia,” he said.
So, what is Trump’s problem?
First of all, he is totally delusional. He believes his relationship with the Russian dictator is so strong that he can convince him to make peace. During the meeting with European leaders, a hot mic caught him telling French President Emmanuel Macron that Putin wants to make a deal, specifically for him”.Second, he is profoundly ignorant of the history and even geography of Ukraine. In a most absurd comment made on a right wing talk show, August 20, Trump referred to Crimea as “the size of Texas” and located “in the middle of the ocean.”
In fact, many experts have cast doubts about Trump’s cognitive abilities. John Gartner, a former assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, says: “What we see are the classic signs of dementia, which is gross deterioration from someone’s baseline and function.” Harry Segal, a senior psychology lecturer at Cornell University, identified Trump’s abrupt shifts in conversation as a telling indicator of neurological degradation. Speaking with KNews, Segal spotlighted Trump’s tendency to confabulate, where he shapes false memories or alters real recollections, explaining: “It’s where he takes an idea or something that’s happened and he adds to it things that have not happened.” Third, Trump has been toadying to Russia since 1987, leading to speculation that the Russians have some serious kompromat on him. According to Coyne: “Mr. Trump’s long and intimate friendship with Jeffrey Epstein is by now a matter of public record; the contents of the Epstein files are not, but if anyone has had access to them, it is a safe bet it is the Russians. It would take a lot to shame a six-times-bankrupt convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, admitted serial sexual predator, but apparently pedophilia – or whatever else Mr. Trump seems so desperate to hide – may finally be the line.”
All this makes Trump totally unfit to govern the most powerful nation on Earth. But as long as he can intimidate not only the Republican Party, but also world leaders, any prospects for peace are nonexistent. As anyone with just a rudimentary understanding of Russia and its history knows, the only way to deal with Russia is with a firm hand. Crushing sanctions and tariffs must be applied not only to Russia, but also to those countries that buy Russian oil and gas, since they are the ones that grease Russia’s war machine. In addition, Ukraine must be given all the weapons it needs to beat back the Russian hordes and liberate its land. And these weapons must be provided without cost. After all, Ukraine’s contribution to the existential war it is fighting is measured in millions of lives… killed, injured and displaced in defending not only itself but the rest of the Free World from greater Russian aggression. In shouldering this heavy burden, Ukrainians have shown not only remarkable resilience but military brilliance. Despite all the odds stacked against them, Ukrainians are devastating both the Russian army and its military infrastructure.
What is becoming increasingly apparent is that the assumption that Trump will finally take any decisive action against Putin if he is flattered enough is as illusory as Trump’s own belief that he can convince Putin to make peace simply by the power of his personality. It’s time for Ukraine’s supporters both in the U.S. Congress and in the democratic world to face this unfortunate reality and take the appropriate action, whether Trump likes it or not.
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