As the war drags on the West has to confront some unpleasant realities that for 18 months President Zelensky has ignored- the war is at a stalemate.
President Trump is acknowledging what both Mark Milley, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Ukrainian counterpart Valeryl Zaluzhnyi argued - that the war could not be won by Ukraine and it was time to negotiate for peace.
Both Presidents Biden and Zelensky chose to continue with stalemate. Biden never articulated an outcome, but rather drip-fed support in an incrementalistic fashion, essentially funding stalemate. President Trump is only trying to end the killing.
With Zelensky finally agreeing to a ceasefire and committed to negotiating a lasting peace, President Trump has led the charge in coercing Putin to the table.
The process will be nonlinear and require compromise, but it’s important to acknowledge the futility of continuing the bloodshed.
This is not capitulation to Putin, and the Ukrainians should be proud that they were able to defend against Russia’s attempt to take Kyiv.
President Trump wants an end to the bloodshed, he is no Putin sympathiser - Greg Swenson
GB News/Getty Images
The time for deterrence was prior to 2022 but that ship has sailed. We can’t turn back the clock. When President Trump took office in 2017 he executed a peace through strength policy by the use of deterrence.
While Obama/Biden sent blankets and MREs to an American airbase in Poland, and trucked the supplies to Kiev in commercial vehicles, Trump sent javelin missiles.
He put sanctions on Nord stream 2, approved the killing of Russian forces in Syria and withdrew from the medium range missile treaty because Putin was violating the terms.
He was the first US President to call out Putin for arranging the murder of his own citizens in the 1999 Moscow bombings, which US intelligence agencies have known for 25 years. This is no “Putin sympathiser”.
When President Biden took office he immediately returned to the Obama appeasement strategy - removing the sanctions on Nord stream while backing down against other adversaries. He removed the Houthis from the terrorist list and ending sanction enforcement against Iran.
Then of course he led the debacle in Afghanistan, presenting Putin a window where deterrence was weakened. Unfortunately we can’t turn back the clock, and the only alternative to peace negotiations is escalating the war. There is little appetite for that in Europe or America.
Joe Biden returned America to Obama's appeasement strategy towards Russia.
Getty Images
So we are at a difficult place where outcomes will be unpleasant. The negotiations will not end with a perfect conclusion and the peace, if possible, will be delicate. Like the end of the Korean War, the aggressor will be pleased and the victims disappointed.
This is simply Realpolitik, where the alternative is endless bloodshed. President Trump understands one must keep your friends close and your enemies closer, or even better embrace economic partnership rather than war.
His attitude toward Russia is not very different from Obama and his “reset” or even Nixon and detente. And remember FDR and Churchill gave away Poland to Stalin at Yalta in order to keep the Soviets in the war against Japan.
This might be the moment where compromise with the aggressor is the best outcome. I hope it works and the killing stops.
