What’s next for Ukraine? Let’s remember what this war is about
“However, faced with brutal repression by the Russians, then the Nazis, then the Russians again, and now Putin (Russia again), the record is clear: Whether it was from Lenin and Stalin starving the Ukrainian people to cow them into submission, or from death squads during World War II, the Ukrainian people have suffered and yet retained a distinct Ukrainian cultural identity.” - World
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“Today’s Christian right is an unfamiliar force with its own distinct, and often unsettling, priorities.”
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
The new right also has many people from our churches. I recently unfriended 3 BJU graduates who are pastors at IFB churches, because I was tired of their posts embracing the craziness of the far right. I can just guess what their congregations are like.
Like almost everything international and political, the situation is complex. I am not sure to believe what the president says is really what he means, but my suspicion is the he wants to become buddy buddy with Russia. We live in a day where the Democrats hate Russia and more and more Republicans are drawn to Russia but getting skeptical of Europe. Certainly when it comes to social issues like Gay Marriage and the LGBTQ movement, Christians side with Russia. But what about freedom and democracy? Again, VP Vance’s speech castigated Europe for losing ground when it comes to free speech and the oppression we have all felt via political correctness. Russia is wrong to invade Ukraine and take their land, however, and that is obvious. And Putin is all about power, control, and ego. So the situaiton is messy. I am hoping that President Trump is saying what he is saying about Zelensky to accommodate Putin’s ego at Zelensky’s expense, but really doesn’t think that way. Hopeful but suspicious it is not so. I hope Trump doesn’t do to Ukraine what Biden did to Afghanistan.
"The Midrash Detective"
....but I do think I know enough not to start negotiations by giving the other guy exactly what he wants, unless that's exactly what my side wants. And that's more or less what Trump is proposing.
The scariest thing IMO is that Trump's plan--basically a Treaty of Versailles (or Frankfurt 1871) on steroids with Ukraine being the victim instead of Germany (or France)--basically makes Ukraine a client state of both Russia and the U.S. while setting the stage for a third world war. Nations that feel they are the victims tend to gravitate towards totalitarian parties.
Really, both Putin and Trump should be running away, SCREAMING, from the Trump plan, because it could make things incredibly horrible for all parties. It also would, AHEM, enable anti-Semitism in Ukraine because a horrible treaty would be blamed on Zelensky. So we have Putin, who absurdly claimed he was trying to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, pushing agreements that would actually increase the demand for Nazification.
No surprise with Putin, who loves his totalitarianism, but I'm appalled that not only Trump, but also Rubio, Vance, and Kellogg, have signed on with that bag of horse manure.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
This approach is the most unRepublican approach I have seen toward Moscow. At the end of the day all wars end politically. I do agree with Trump that Europe has sat too far on the sidelines. Complaining about Russia and then sitting back while the American's do the lions share of work. Trump is right, we need to do something. We either need to call Putin's bluff and position troops within Ukraine, or we need to resolve the crisis through negotiations. This slow grind where we give them a little bit just to keep Putin at bay is not going to solve anything. I am not a fan of giving the agressor the rights to land they took. It is starting to feel like the early days of WW2 with Germany invading Poland. I also think Zelensky was right not to sign the agreement from Trump. If I was Zelensky I would give them the US the rights in exchange for a permanent base with troops stationed there.
Many of Trumps ideas have a glimmer of sanity to them, but they are always overshadowed with his need to dominate and act on his Narcissistic traits. Calling Zelensky a dictator, failing to hold Russia accountable, claiming Ukraine started the war... is just stupid.
Some numbers for comparison:
What Trump is demanding: $500 billion in Ukrainian mineral reserves.
Portion of those mineral reserves actually controlled by Ukraine: $150 billion
Pre-war GDP of Ukraine: $400 billion
Actual aid provided to Ukraine, list value: $120 billion
Type of aid provided to Ukraine: grants and draw-down (it was not loans)
Aid provided to Ukraine, depreciated (many weapons systems were seriously old): $24 billion
So more or less, what Trump is demanding is a repayment for grants in an amount of about 20x what it actually cost our country to provide them, and 25% in excess of the country's GDP in good times--probably about 70% in excess of GDP today, and 50% in excess of GDP with the likely territory Ukraine will control if the war ends soon.
Biblical term for this is usury, and the term I remember from my childhood is "loan-sharking" and "extortion". It's not the way to treat an ally which has destroyed the bulk of the Russian army for us without a single U.S. soldier dying. It's also incredibly foolish in light of the fact that as Russians figure out how badly their armed forces have been destroyed, the next person to be destroyed is going to be Vladimir Putin, along with his henchmen.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Bert,
According to the state Deparment last month, we have given $27.7B in military assistance.
According to the treasury Department other aid has been sometimes in the form of loans
Typically during war, the money given in assistance is repaid through frozen assets of the agressor. Making the victim pay for the costs to defend against the agressor through giving up of massive amounts of natural resources is unheard of.
It does fit into Trump's narrative. A narcisist doesn't see agressor or victims. They see winners and losers. Someone who is not a narcissist doesn't understand this because it makes no sense. But the structure of a narcissist brain forces the view through a different lens. It is called zero-sum thinking, it is a clinical attribute of a narcissist.
I am not in a position or qualified to diagnose Trump. But having been around clinically diagnosed narcissists, he exhibits many classic signs. Narcissism can be treated, but not cured. There are structural deficiencies in the brain that causes this behavior.
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