“Peace for our time”
Neville Chamberlain (1939)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other autocratic rulers have learned how to easily manipulate Donald Trump by playing to his narcissistic ego, craving for adoration, promises for future development deals, and desire to become the fifth president awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Never distracted by facts, the president has ramped up false claims Ukraine’s leaders never should have allowed the conflict to begin … ignoring it was Russia’s unprovoked 2022 military invasion of the Ukraine that started the war!
Trump’s isolating Zelenskyy from peace talks with Putin while echoing Kremlin talking points the Ukrainian president is a dictator with only a 4% approval rating are insulting fabrications and impediments to any future peace.
The president’s willingness to force Zelenskyy to concede territory to Putin with no guarantees preventing future Russian aggression are reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement deal allowing Hitler to seize Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland in exchange for Germany making “No more territorial demands to make in Europe.”
Trump’s waffling on America’s commitment to NATO, pandering to Putin, threatening to withhold future aid to Ukraine, and refusing to even support a UN resolution condemning Russia for invading the Ukraine is causing America to lose credibility with historic European allies who remember how appeasement only emboldened Hitler’s and Germany’s subsequent and deadly aggression into Poland and the rest of Europe,
Trump demonstrates no empathy or appreciation for the sacrifices of thousands of Ukrainians who have fought and often died to preserve the independence of their country and freedom for its citizens and pales as a leader compared to Winston Churchill or Franklin Roosevelt and their country’s people who willingly confronted tyranny and made tremendous, often ultimate, sacrifices to protect and restore freedom for those under attack and persecuted by a foreign adversary while asking nothing in return.
Rather, credible sources have reported Trump rejected a visit to the American Cemetery in Normandie, referring the fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers.”
Given his proclivity for transactional “deals, the president is demanding $500 billion in rare earth minerals form Ukraine in return for America’s past military aid and a percentage of future mineral revenues “forever” as compensation for future aid.
One can only wonder what economic concessions he would have demanded from our European allies during WWII in return for American military arms, manpower and sacrifices to defeat Hitler or the Marshall Plan to rebuild post-war Europe
President Zelensky has said, “If for peace for Ukraine, it’s truly necessary for you that I leave my post, I am ready.” Does anyone really think Trump would make such an unselfish sacrifice?
