| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Trump Blasts Critics Of His Ukraine Peace Initiative, Including Zelensky, Questions Where Hundreds Of Billions Went |
| 2025-02-20 |
| [ZeroHedge] |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #19 ^Lithuanians are Belorussians now. And Turks 😎 |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-02-20 14:24 |
| #18 ^ Don't forget the Lithuanians...and the Turks. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2025-02-20 14:14 |
| #17 ^One can argue - based on history (both recent and less recent) - that Ukrainians are incapable of self-rule. Thus, again based on history, Russian rule is the best thing that can happen to them (Polish is the worst - Churchill didn't call Poland "the hyena of Europe" for nothing). |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-02-20 13:40 |
| #16 Big Bad Putin is going to run his tanks into Paris, huh? After he rolls through Warsaw and Berlin? Gimme a break. He can't even get them to Kiev. NATO started after WWII as a bulwark against Joe Stalin and the USSR. But Stalin and the USSR no longer exist. Some people argued after the Soviet Union collapsed that NATO no longer had a purpose. I say the purpose changed. It's purpose is no longer to keep the Russians out of Western Europe but to keep Western European war mongers down. It failed in that purpose when Joe Biden, with backing from Western European globalists, insisted on expanding NATO into Ukraine. Putin warned them not to do it. The prospect of NATO bringing nuclear tipped cruise missiles right up to Russia's border was unacceptable to him. He feared those missiles could hit Moscow before the Russians even knew they were launched and so a first strike from NATO would go unanswered. Doesn't anybody understand how destabilizing that would be? But the globalists thought Putin was so weak that he could not stop the NATO expansion. They thought they could do it on the cheap without committing their own troops. Then they could go on to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and all the Caucasus states. Where would they stop? Kamchatka? Putin is correct not to trust Americans or Western Europeans. They lied to him about the Minsk Agreements. They engineered a coup in Kiev to install their own puppet regime. They are not trustworthy. But the You want to talk about Crimea? Tsarina Catherine the Great ran the Tatars out of Crimea back in 1787. Crimea was a part of Russia before California was a part of the United States of America. The Ukrainian border that included Crimea was drawn in the early 1950's when it didn't matter because it was all a part of the Soviet Union under Moscow's control. No way in hell could Putin allow a NATO naval base in Sevastopol. His generals would kill him if he did and they would be correct in doing so. Forget it, people. Ukraine is a lost cause. It should have never been a cause in the first place. Crooked American and Western European elites were only using it to launder money and expand their empire. They lost. Don't cry about it. Celebrate. But, hey, you want to keep fighting Russians? Go ahead. Just don't come crying to me when you get your butts blown off and don't ask me to pay for it. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2025-02-20 13:28 |
| #15 /\ Also, I can not emphasize enough how much I loathe and despise the European political class who has done their very worst to destroy the Western alliance over the last decades. Posted by Elmerert Hupens You are not alone Hup. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2025-02-20 12:30 |
| #14 My #12 was mainly directed to EC's #5 |
| Posted by: Matt 2025-02-20 12:05 |
| #13 @12 I'm not an American and I haven't given any direct advice. I just laid out what Russia has been demanding openly and officially since December of 2021. When I saw the reports on the draft treaties back then I was shocked, and I knew that something big and bad was going to happen. This goes far beyond Ukraine. But it also shouldn't be a surprise. 9/11 demonstrated the US' and NATO's lack of any serious commitment to self-preservation and self-defense, not due to cowardice but due to some kind of weird cultural masochism. Also, I can not emphasize enough how much I loathe and despise the European political class who has done their very worst to destroy the Western alliance over the last decades. |
| Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-20 11:53 |
| #12 In general I agree with EC that we should stand by NATO. That said, the question of what we should do has to be assessed in conjunction with the question of what we can do. We have defense commitments to NATO, the nations of the First Island Chain, and others. But we no longer have virtually uncontested control of the seas, which means that movement of forces and projection of power are not what they might have been 20 years ago. Imagine a REFORGER exercise in which our forces have to fight their way through a capable PLAN fleet to get to Europe, while also defending Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Which is why Trump is right to insist on the other NATO countries (and our Asian allies) getting serious about defense. He's not making that demand just to annoy Europe. |
| Posted by: Matt 2025-02-20 11:22 |
| #11 ^I use "nationalist" in the sense of "want that's best for his country". |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-02-20 11:06 |
| #10 They're Chinese nationalist. A different take from David Goldman / Spengler: "China Is a Polyglot Empire, Not a Nation" |
| Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-20 10:57 |
| #9 But the other side is also a Globalist project. All-Under-Heaven under the leadership of the 'Center Kingdom' aka PRC. Nope. They're Chinese nationalist. Just like Russia rulers are Russian nationalists, or Trump is an American nationalist. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-02-20 10:27 |
| #8 Article 5 has never been in doubt until now. Article 5 has been invoked exactly once, after a mass fatality attack on the US. The military reaction by NATO & US, pertaining to Art. 5 ended in a shameful and humiliating defeat for NATO & the US. If Putin hadn't reasonably doubted Art. 5 he wouldn't have annexed Crimea, or started the 2022 invasion (or used a radiological weapon on the territory of a nuclear NATO member state.) Better to give Ukraine all the weapons it need now then fight later. Or exit NATO. Those are your choices. Russia wants to put end end to freedom of navigation for the US surface navy in non-US or international waters. This would end the US role as a global power, ending alliances and security guarantees wrt Europe, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia / Oceania. Technically it would be hard to impossible for the US to maintain bases like Diego Garcia, Pacific territories and even Alaska and Hawaii. Trump's Greenland, Gaza and Monroe doctrine policies would be made impossible. But Putin has said negotiations with Ukraine remain a non-starter so long as Zelensky refuses to hold elections. (West) Germany hadput a provision suspending elections into its constitution in 1968 to to fulfill preconditions by the Western allies for a forfeiture of their reserved emergency powers. Trump has been very wrong before. but he has shown the willingness and the ability to correct himself, which is more than can be said of other politicians. No wonder Globalists hate democracy. European elites did their very best to destroy the Western alliance by spitting in 'Good Cop' Vance's face. For this irrational irresponsibility they deserve scorn and contempt. But the other side is also a Globalist project. All-Under-Heaven under the leadership of the 'Center Kingdom' aka PRC. |
| Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-20 10:12 |
| #7 US tells Zelensky to 'tone down the criticism and sign that deal' and 'refuses to sign UN resolution... |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-02-20 10:06 |
| #6 How can one single election change things. Under Biden West Europeans were masters of the Universe - with their US Democratic disciples providing both money & muscle to enforce the decisions of the EUropean Globalist sages. Now, US has a POTUS who wants to make EUrope into a theme park - like Disneyland. No wonder Globalists hate democracy. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-02-20 09:18 |
| #5 I would it the other way round: As long as the US stays in NATO, war with Russia won't happen. Article 5 has never been in doubt until now. This could lead Russia to make a fatal miscalculation. Europe will rearm but it will take time. But if the US abandons Europe, don't expect Europe to buy US weapons any longer. Another possibility is that Europe somehow comes to terms with Russia (and China). The US could find itself damn alone. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2025-02-20 08:15 |
| #4 As long as the US stays in NATO war with Russia is almost inevitable. Peace now means war in 7-10 years. Better to give Ukraine all the weapons it need now then fight later. Or exit NATO. Those are your choices. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2025-02-20 06:55 |
| #3 "But Putin has said negotiations with Ukraine remain a non-starter so long as Zelensky refuses to hold elections. The Russian leader has said this makes him 'illegitimate' and thus he can't legally sign any peace terms." (From the ZeroHedge article). You wonder how "elected" Stalin could negotiate with "dictator" Churchill. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2025-02-20 06:47 |
| #2 Russia's demands have been on the table since 2021. Russia's demands go far beyond Ukraine in Europe and they go far beyond Europe. Ukraine even becoming an issue was the big surprise. Before the start of the war Western expert consensus was that Russia could seize Ukraine in a matter of hours. Trump and the entire Western political class had ample time to consider and should now declare their position. Time for clarity. |
| Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-20 04:25 |
| #1 How USAID Assisted the Corporate Takeover of Ukrainian Agriculture |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-02-20 01:56 |