Seventy (70) years in the making, there was a multi-car crash in the Oval Office on February 28 with Ukraine’s president, Donald Trump, and J.D. Vance. As with any multi-car pile-up, we cannot look away.
The Zelensky-Trump meeting actually was a success, although we are admonished that no one should see legislation or sausage being made. Despite a dysfunctional testosterone-choked machismo fog that filled the White House that day, the massive divide became crystal-clear on the most important issue.
President Zelensky does not want to end the war. He wants to crush Russia completely and drive Russia out of all Ukrainian land. And I am sure I would feel the same. But I hope I would have the life experience and clarity to overcome those emotions with the life lessons of The Rolling Stones — “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Yes, it hurts. Life is often painful. We cry out in our hearts against the wrongs and injustices of this fallen world. But no perfection is found on this side of heaven.
Yet every European official, leader, diplomat, and military hack, and most of those in the USA — anyone with credentials as a supposed expert — has spent years infecting Ukraine with the delusional fantasy that Ukraine, with 38.76–50 million people (many parked in Europe during the war) can defeat Russia, with 145 million people. Russia could send 10 million troops into Ukraine armed only with bows and arrows. Ukrainians could kill 2–3 million, but Russian victory is guaranteed.
Where did the establishment’s delusion come from? Seventy years ago, planned as early as 1948. See this CIA Memorandum, June 22, 1955: The CIA planned, organized, trained, and funded a Ukrainian separatist movement for the purpose of de-stabilizing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The irrational delusion that hot-headed Ukrainian nationalists could overthrow the KGB and Soviet system was actually created by the United States of America through its intelligence services.
Again, those who hope to profit from the war will quickly attack this as Putin propaganda. These are the CIA’s own documents. Remember: At the time, the CIA and public officials were proud of their efforts.
But really, the CIA was building on the “Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists” founded in 1929. See Harvard Ukrainian Studies and The Holocaust Explained.
The USA told Ukrainian extremists that they could topple the Soviet Union. Worse, we implied that the USA would back them up — “back stop” is today’s term — and fight with them in their war against Russia. Zelensky came demanding from Trump, “Where is the ‘back stop’ the USA promised us?”
Today, we have the “Let’s pillage Russia’s natural resources” war-mongers. I heard them myself with my own ears, in the room, at meetings and speeches by “conservative” think-tanks starting in 1992. We can defeat Russia once and for all, they loudly insisted. (If I heard it, I suspect that Russia’s intelligence services might have gotten wind of it, too, and factored it into their assessment of trusting the West.)
The McCain/Cheney “Cold War Dead-Enders” made a fatal mistake. No one cared about fighting for the Soviet Union anymore. But if you threaten their homeland, Russians may fight back ferociously. The smash hit “Я Русский,” ecstatically celebrating that they are Russian, hardly tracks with the defeated backwater that Western war-mongers are portraying.
Donald Trump has clearly been negotiating to negotiate, discussing the shape of the table, so to speak, as clarified by secretary of State Marco Rubio. We don’t know the specifics, and it appears there are none.
Trump is also engaged in “shuttle diplomacy.” Do we really think Trump is going to put Vladimir Putin in the same room, around the same table, as Volodymyr Zelensky? Seriously? That would be a Western saloon brawl.
But Trump’s plan to acquire mineral rights appears to have been a masterstroke. One should remember that Trump thinks as a businessman. So when Trump talks about “securing” repayment of the $350 billion the USA has allegedly provided (the amount is disputed) — Europe will largely be repaid — this has a precise meaning in business finance.
When Trump mentions $500 billion, he is saying the USA would provide Ukraine $150 billion more — up to a $500-billion total. So Zelensky could have another $150 billion to fight with. When he says “secure,” this means as a last resort. Security has precise meanings and procedures in business finance. Thus, Ukraine could repay the USA (and Europe) any way it wants, with the mineral rights as collateral.
But here the genius part: Ukraine and Europe are screaming about “[military] security guarantees,” by which they clearly mean that the U.S. military should be posted on Ukrainian soil (while the Europeans frolic in the forests with wine and cheese and drag queens).
Putting armed U.S. and/or European soldiers in Ukraine will trigger World War III. And it would be nuclear, if necessary for Russia to win. Even if Putin doesn’t want war, like a street gang leader who is “dissed,” Putin will have no choice but to preserve his street cred.
But what about (unarmed) business managers, engineers, U.S. miners, transportation workers? With a wink and a nod to a fully awake Vladimir Putin looking the other way to avoid a thermonuclear world war, the United States would have U.S. citizens inside Ukraine. This would give Ukraine the only guarantee it can get. Russia will not attack Ukraine with significant numbers of U.S. citizens in the country.
Russia and Trump know what this means. The gimmick depends upon biting their tongues and pretending they don’t see it. So a reporter asked Trump how long would it take to mine the rare minerals — a decade? Trump toyed obviously with the topic, saying things like “I don’t know, things can take a long time, you know?” You go looking, and the metals aren’t where you think they are. Who knows? It could take lots of time. So Trump was clearly telegraphing that this is a charade. This is a security guarantee dressed up as a business venture. Maybe we’ll keep doing it for 50 years.
But Zelensky couldn’t “hear” that over the noise of a sensation-hungry old-school news media establishment. Zelensky lacks the sophistication to deal with a man-eating, bloodthirsty, clickbait Western news media establishment.
It was also a mistake for President Zelensky — it would be a mistake for anyone — to go into a high-profile event without his own translator. Zelensky’s English is very good, but those of us who have done any business or professional activity across languages have learned that “good enough” quickly falls short when the content gets specialized or complex. Zelensky badly fumbled by failing to understand nuances and explain himself precisely.
Flickr, public domain.
Jesus Christ is King
