The Ukraine war will end this year and someone will get the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping it

After three years of fighting, Ukraine's war with Russia is at a stalemate, Russia controls about 20 percent of Ukraine, and the Ukrainians can't drive them out.

Last August, in a surprise move, Ukrainians staged what the Western media called an incursion into the Kursk region of Russia and captured about 500 square miles of Russian territory. The United States, Ukraine's closest ally, claimed to be surprised by this move, but I suspect the Americans helped plan this mini-invasion. 

Ukraine hoped to use the captured territory as a bargaining chip to improve its position during peace talks, which were bound to occur sooner or later. Unfortunately for the Ukrainians, the Kursk invasion brought North Korean troops into the war as Russian allies, and now Russia has pushed the Ukrainians out of Russian territory. 

President Trump has pushed aggressively to end the Ukraine war--this "ridiculous war," as Trump has described it. He's taken a lot of heat from Democratic politicians and the Trump-hating media for his efforts. His enemies at home would rather continue the senseless bloodshed than allow Trump to get credit for brokering a peace deal.

Trump may have made some tactical errors in his vigorous efforts to push Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to the bargaining table. Trump cut off arms shipments to Ukraine for a short time, giving his enemies an opening to accuse Trump of being Russia's ally. 

Nevertheless, Trump's diplomatic pressure, asserted against both Ukraine and Russia, has changed the dynamics of the conflict. This war will end before the year is out.

Ukraine and its allies must face the fact that Russia will control Crimea and much of the Donbas region when this war is over. Crimea has been part of Russia since the 18th century,  and Russia has critical military installations there. Moreover, Russia must control the Sea of Azov and at least part of the Donbas to safeguard its supply line from the Russian Motherland to the Crimean peninsula.

The sooner the warring nations reach a peace deal, the fewer young soldiers will die in this nonsensical conflict.  I predict someone involved in bringing peace negotiations to fruition will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

However, it will not be President Trump. The leftist media, afflicted with a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, would never allow it.

Cover of Crimean Blunder by Pete Gibbs. Image credit: Amazon 

"The status quo sucks." Trump's enemies would rather prolong the Ukraine war than let Trump get credit for ending it.

 Someday, the Ukraine war will end, and the outcome is predictable. Russia will retain Crimea and much of the Donbas. Ukraine will not join NATO but will get security guarantees from the United States and many Western European countries. Russia will promise not to invade its Western neighbors again.

The war can end now on these terms, or the war can stretch on for several years. In the end, however, after the killing has stopped, Russia will hold Crimea and much of the Donbas.

President Trump moved the peace process forward by forcing Ukrainian President Zelensky to face reality. The U.S. is not going to prop up the Ukraine military forever. 

Trump also pressured the Europeans to take more responsibility for their defense and actively participate in peace negotiations. Indeed, the Europeans recently put forward their own peace proposal.

In the U.S., the slimy D.C. swamp dwellers are doing all they can to prevent Trump from getting a peace deal. As I wrote yesterday, President Zelensky met with Senator Chris Murphy only a few minutes before going to the Oval Office to sign a mineral rights agreement with President Trump.

I do not know what was said between Zelensky and Senator Murphy, but the upshot of that meeting was that Zelensky went to the Oval Office, spoke rudely to President Trump, and refused to sign the mineral rights deal.

President Trump's political enemies, led by Senators Murphy, Blumenthal, and Schumer, prefer the status quo in Ukraine to peace. But, as the comedian George Carlin once remarked, "The status quo sucks."

Most Americans support President Trump's efforts to bring peace to Ukraine. If his efforts fail, they will place the blame where it belongs--on the insidious Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

As for Zelensky, he needs to realize that he will be jeopardizing his own safety if the war drags on. Russia launched a new hypersonic missile into Ukraine a while back, a weapon that the Russians claim is nearly impervious to Ukraine's anti-missile defenses. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he might aim his new missile at "decision-making centers" in Ukraine. What do you suppose he meant by that remark?

Senator Chris Murphy plays the demagogue. Photo credit: The Irish Times

Why would anyone oppose Trump's efforts to end the Ukraine war?

We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we will all hang separately.

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin 

President Trump is trying to end the Ukraine war, which has brought incalculable misery to both the Ukrainians and the Russians.

I say incalculable because the war's advocates are not telling the truth about military and civilian casualty rates. Nor have they acknowledged the enormous environmental harms caused by the war.

Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, rattled Ukrainian President Vladimir  Zelensky by observing that Ukraine will probably need to cede some territory to get a peace deal. However, Hegseth was only stating the obvious. 

No credible authority believes Russia will consent to relinquish Crimea. Nor will Vladimir Putin give up the predominately Russian-speaking districts of the Donbas--where fighting has gone on for ten years.

Hegseth also made waves when he said that talking about NATO membership for Ukraine is unrealistic. Again, Hegseth was only stating the obvious. It would be insane to make Ukraine a NATO member now. Indeed, no NATO country is strongly pushing for immediate Ukraine membership. 

Every American should be grateful for Trump's energetic efforts to bring the stupid Ukraine war to a speedy conclusion. Yet, Democratic politicians are spewing vicious vitriol at the President while having no plan of their own to end this disastrous conflict.

Senator Richard Blumenthal's criticisms were particularly odious. He objected to Trump's characterization of Zelensky as a dictator who was doing a "terrible job" of running the war.

"What world is he living in?" Blumenthal asked. 

[Trump's remarks were] not only contrary to the facts and the truth but utterly despicable, a disgusting betrayal of a country that has bled and fought and died for freedom. The president's surrender is pathetic and weak.

Perhaps it was therapeutic for Senator Blumenthal to insult the President, and I'm sure his hissy fit played well with progressive Democrats in New Haven. Nevertheless, what's the Connecticut Senator's plan for ending the slaughter in Ukraine?

Does Blumenthal want the U.S. to follow President Biden's strategy, which was to ship money and weapons to Zelensky in perpetuity?

Will Zelensky's corrupt and venal regime prevail if we keep sending cluster bombs, uranium-enriched artillery shells, antipersonnel mines, Abrams tanks, and F-16s to Ukraine? Or will we eventually stumble into a nuclear war?

I favor putting the Democratic Party's deranged attacks against President Trump aside for a while and supporting his efforts to stop the Ukraine war. There will be plenty of time to slander him as a Nazi after the killing stops.

Senator Blumenthal and cronies

Biden Okays Long-Range Missile Strikes Into Russia. It's Time to Invoke the 25th Amendment

 Russia's war with Ukraine has slogged along for more than a thousand days--longer than the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II.  Russia suffered approximately 1.5 million casualties during the Leningrad battle, including about a million people who died of starvation. 

How many people have died so far in the Ukraine war? No one can say for sure because everyone is lying, but a fair estimate is one million dead or wounded. In addition,  the war has displaced about one-third of Ukraine's civilian population.

This is Joe Biden's war; he has sent enough weapons and ammunition to keep it crackling merrily for nearly three years. Ukraine's President Zelensky—the little guy who wears pajamas when he speaks before Congress—claims his country can defeat the Russians if the U.S. supplies it with high-tech weapons, and Biden has obliged.

So far, our government has given Zelensky Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, cluster bombs, Uranium-tip missiles, Javelin missile systems, and F-16 fighter jets. 

Yet the Russians keep pushing, and North Korea recently joined the fight.

 Everyone knows the Ukrainians can't defeat Russia and that peace can only be achieved through territorial concessions. Does anyone believe the Zelensky regime will reclaim Crimea or the Donbas?

Now Biden's demented days are numbered. Donald Trump will take office in January, and he has promised to bring the Ukraine war to an end. 

So, what does Biden do during the waning days of his administration? He gives Ukraine permission to strike Russia with US-made long-range missiles. 

Vladimir Putin has warned that this escalation could trigger a nuclear war, but apparently, no one in the Biden administration believes him.

In my view, Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to launch long-range American missiles into Russia is insane. The doddering fool only has about 60 more days in office. That's plenty of time to impeach him or invoke the 25th Amendment.

Photo credit: The Economist

Pay no attention to the North Koreans behind the curtain

 Ukraine’s war with Russia is nearing its third anniversary. So far, things have gone swimmingly. As one US Senator boasted, the United States has hired the Ukrainians to kill Russians and we don’t have to get our hands dirty. What’s not to like?

Everyone is lying about how many people have been killed, but some experts estimate the Russians have suffered half a million  casualties--both killed and wounded. Who knows how many Ukrainians have died, but surely the Russians are as efficient in the killing fields as the Ukrainians. It’s a fair estimate to say that one million people have been killed or maimed in this needless war, and at least 6 million Eastern Europeans are refugees.

I confess that I never learned to hate the Russians. Even as a child, when my second-grade teacher ordered me and my classmates to crawl under our desks for our periodic nuclear war drill, I couldn’t work up any animosity toward the Slavs.

My seven-year-old mind told me that the grown-ups had fucked things up somehow, and I figured some really smart person would get everything straightened out before I had to register for the draft. 

Indeed, the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union ended in 1991, and the Commies took President Reagan's advice and tore down the Berlin wall.

For a while, East-West relations improved, and some people envisioned a day when the old Soviet regime would join the global economy and embrace western values. Ukraine and other Soviet republics declared their independence, and a brighter world seemed just around the corner.

Then, in 2014, the Ukrainians elected a pro-Russian president, and the CIA engineered a tin-pot uprising that forced the poor schumk into exile.

The Russians, understandably alarmed, reclaimed Crimea as part of the Russian motherland partly because it had an important naval base in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. Most Crimeans were okay with that because they overwhelming voted to rejoin Russia.

Meanwhile, separatists in Eastern Ukraine fought a smoldering war for independence, and the US and the Ukrainian government became cozy friends.

Then, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the Ukrainians beat them off with Western weaponry, notably the Javelin missile systems.

Since then, the US and the NATO countries have showered Ukraine with advanced killing machines--Abrams and Leopard tanks, Bradley Fighting vehicles, F-16 jets and anti-ship missiles.

In response, Russia strengthened its ties with China, Iran, and North Korea, and North Korean troops will soon be fighting the Ukrainians.

Russia has repeatedly threatened to escalate the Ukrainian conflict into a nuclear war, but Americans are not worried. In fact, we think our demented president and idiot vice president are doing a great job managing our international affairs.

What's the long game? Ukraine and its allies could recognize Russia's claims to the Donbas and Crimea and promise not to allow Ukraine to join NATO. That action would bring the war to an end.

Alternatively, we can allow this war to drag on at the expense of another million casualties until Ukraine's cities and infrastructure are pounded into rubble.

 Then we could dust off America's strategy in Vietnam and Afghanistan and simply declare victory and go home--perhaps leaving our tanks and armored vehicles on the Ukrainian steppes as a farewell gift to Ukrainian Presidents Zelensky and Putin.

Meanwhile, our government is distracting the donkey-brained American people with histrionic claims that Donald Trump is a fascist. We'll see how things work out.

Join he North Korean Army and see the world.

Are we nuts? Ukraine invades Russia

When the good guys invade a country, it’s called an incursion. When the bad guys invade a country, it’s called an invasion. Thus, when the United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, the press described the event as an incursion.

When the good guys sponsor an independence election, it’s an exercise of democracy. When the bad guys sponsor an independence election, it’s called an illegal annexation and a violation of international law.

Over the years, the United States has supported free elections worldwide to further democracy. Nevertheless, when the people of Crimea voted to join Russia and the people of the Donbas region did likewise, the Western press described these expressions of democracy as fraudulent violations of international law.

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Now, Ukraine has invaded Russia. According to the American sycophant press, Ukraine’s action is an incursion, not an invasion. Nothing to see here folks; please move along.

Ukraine has sunk about a third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and now it has pushed Ukrainian troops into the Kursk region of Russia. Ukraine could not have done those things without American approval and logistics support. It would not be unfair to say that the United States has attacked Russia by destroying the Russian navy and invading Russian soil. Indeed, Vladimir Putin sees it that way, and Putin has nuclear weapons.

How smart are the Americans who have managed the Ukraine war? Let’s face it. Joe Biden is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and Kamala Harris is no brighter.

Americans are not giving much thought to the war in Ukraine. The mainline press is obsessed with the November election, and the Labor Day holiday is approaching. We aren't concerned with events in Ukraine, where war has produced a million casualties.

Putin has warned us that an escalation of the war in Ukraine could force Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons. I believe him. Biden, Congress, and the New York Times apparently believe that Putin is just blowing smoke.

If nuclear war breaks out because of our stupid meddling in Eastern Europe, I will be in Mississippi catching catfish on the Buffalo River. The residents of New York, Boston, and Washington, DC, will be the people at risk. 

And when the apocalypse descends on America, the coastal elites will suddenly discover the charms of Flyover Country. They will be welcome to shelter in the rural South so long as they leave their arrogant and self-centered politics behind.

Russian refugees from the Kursk region

Pax Americana will die in the wheatfields of Ukraine: The American Century is over

 About 100 nations attended a peace summit on the Ukraine war last week, held at a 5-star resort in Switzerland. Ukraine wasn't invited, and several invitees—including China—did not attend. Most attending nations signed a communique on the Ukraine conflict, but some important countries did not: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Mexico, Indonesia, India, Brazil, and India. 

Hmmm. The BRIC nations, which are working to undermine the status of the dollar, were all nonsigners. What do you suppose that means?

The United States--far more interested in cramming a Gaza ceasefire down Israel's throat than peace in Ukraine--sent VP Kamala Harris as its official representative, and she only attended briefly. Meanwhile, President Biden spent time with George Clooney and Julia Roberts out in Califonia, raising money for his reelection campaign.

None of these world leaders proposed a plausible plan to end the Ukraine war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it won't be time to discuss a peace plan until Ukraine's military position is more robust.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "sane" ceasefire proposal that would require the West to renounce Ukraine's membership in NATO and cede the Donbas and Crimea to Russia. Ukraine dismissed Putin's offer as a nonstarter.

The Ukraine war has only three possible outcomes: First, Russia will win the conflict and absorb the Donbas into the Russian Federation. It already has a firm hold on most of the territory it demands.

Second, the United States, ever more desperate to defeat the Russkies, will escalate the conflict, eventually pushing Putin to use tactical nuclear weapons, which he has repeatedly threatened to do.

Third, the Ukraine war will simply drag on for several more years until Ukraine is a wasteland and Uncle Sam is dead broke.

The third possibility is most likely. If the Ukraine war drags on for a few more years, the U.S. will no longer be a world power. In other words, Pax Americana is in its twilight years and will end as the BRICs accede to world dominance.

Personally, I think the collapse of America's status as the world's leader is a high price to pay for fucking with the Russians in the wheatfields of Ukraine.

600 new sanctions against Russia. Take that, you Slavic thugs!

 Russia’s war on Ukraine enters its third year. Ukraine’s counteroffensive, launched last spring, was a failure, and Russian troops are gaining ground in the Donbas region.  What to do?

Here’s an idea. Let’s slap new sanctions on the Russians—that’ll teach those Slavic thugs not to mess with Ukraine. But if these sanctions are such a good idea, why weren’t they implemented in 2022, right after Russia invaded Ukraine? Why wait two years? 

Are any American and Nato sanctions working? The Obama administration and other NATO countries implemented sanctions against Russia in 2014, right after Russia annexed Crimea. A year later, NATO claimed the sanctions were effective. NATO was wrong, however, because eight years after swallowing Crimea, Russia invaded Ukraine.

As John Paul Jones once said, “I have not yet begun to fight.” Now, President Biden is letting the world know he’s friggin' serious. Maybe his 600 new sanctions will get Russia to back off and get the hell out of Ukraine.

Or maybe not. The Guardian reported recently that the Russian economy grew by 3 percent last year despite the grinding war with Ukraine. On the other hand, Germany, one of Ukraine’s most important allies, saw its economy shrink over the same period.

We’ll see how things work out. If Russia and Ukraine are fighting a year from now, maybe the United States can find even more sanctions to impose on those pesky Slavic invaders. Of course, what Ukraine really needs right now is ammunition, not sanctions.  And if the war drags on, Ukraine will probably need more ammunition next year than it needs now.

The U.S is bumbling toward a serious confrontation with Russia over Ukraine

 2024 dawns with America embroiled in a war in Eastern Europe. The United States is fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and the Russians are winning.

The United States bears a large share of responsibility for this catastrophe. Our government destabilized Ukraine in 2014 when it goaded the Ukrainians into overthrowing a popularly elected pro-Russian president. Within weeks, Russia responded by annexing Crimea. Six years later, Russia invaded Ukraine and now occupies the largely Russian-speaking Donbas region in the eastern region of that wretched country.

The Ukraine war has been a humanitarian disaster. At least a half million people have been killed or maimed in Ukraine, and the country's population has been cut in half as refugees flee to other European countries to escape the fighting. 

Without question, Ukraine is losing its war with Russia. Ukraine's vaunted spring counteroffensive achieved almost nothing. The Ukrainians will never oust Russia from Crimea or the Donbas, and everyone knows it.

Anyone who thinks Russia will tire of the war and simply give up doesn't know Russian history. Hitler besieged Leningrad during World War II for 900 days and never captured the city, even though one million Russians starved to death before the Russians broke the siege.

Americans are mistaken if they think the Ukraine misadventure will not affect them. Our politicians crow that the Ukraine war is a windfall for the United States because the Ukrainians are killing Russians with American weapons while the United States sits safely on the sidelines.  The Ukraine war will weaken Russia, the pundits say, but they are wrong.

Russia's army is larger today than it was before the Ukraine war began, and it is the United States, not Russia, that is tiring of the war. Congress is balking at the prospect of limitless funding for the Ukraine project, and our European allies are beginning to wish they had never followed our cognitively challenged President into the briar patch that is Ukraine.

Americans will pay a price for for our feckless and arrogant foreign policy. President Putin will have his revenge against us. He is tirelessly working toward the day when the US dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency. We can expect some act of retribution on a scale that will shock us.

There will be a reckoning for our government's behavior, likely before the November 2024 election.

A Half Million Ukrainian War Casualties and 6 Million Refugees: What’s the Point?

 During the First World War, it was said that the British military maintained three sets of casualty lists. One version was kept to hoodwink the public. A second set was maintained to dupe the British War Office. And the third set was kept to deceive itself.

According to the New York Times, nearly half a million troops have been killed or wounded over the last 18 months of Ukraine's war with Russia. The Times calculates that 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another 180,000 wounded. Russian military casualties are even higher: 120,000 deaths and 180,000 injured.

Of course, these numbers are only estimates. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have revealed their casualty lists. These tallies don't include civilian casualties, which must be severe given the routine bombing of Ukrainian towns and villages by the Russians.

As the Times put it, the toll of dead and wounded is “staggering.” To put it in perspective, about 58,000 American soldiers died during the Vietnam War, a conflict that stretched over ten years. Ukraine, a country with a much smaller population, lost 70,000 soldiers in only 18 months.

Then there are the refugees. Around 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and another 5 million have been displaced but still live in Ukraine.

Most Americans feel no moral responsibility for this catastrophe, even though American weapons and money have significantly contributed to the carnage. College students, by the millions, protested the war in Vietnam, but today's young students have more refined moral sensibilities. They can be whipped into a frenzy if a conservative judge gives a speech on a college campus. They don't give a shit about the Ukrainians.

And consider this. The New York Times may have miscalculated the death toll from the Ukrainian war. Douglas Macgregor. a retired U.S. Army officer, believes 400,000 Ukrainians have been killed during the war—more than five times the number reported by the Times.

America's legacy media report that Ukraine is winning this war, but that's untrue. Ukraine will never recover Crimea or the Donbas, no matter how many Ukrainians are killed or maimed in this senseless war with Russia. And make no mistake. The Russians will find a way to make America pay for provoking this pointless conflict.

Are we having fun yet? The Ukraine war intensifies, and Americans are enthralled by Barbie

Ukraine’s war with Russia has dragged on for 18 months and shows no signs of ending. It's like The Walking Dead series; it ran on and on long after its audience became bored. General Milley warned Americans that the war would be a long one; perhaps the only honest thing he's said about it.

The mainstream media casts this war as a barbaric act of Russian aggression. However, pro-war columnists neglect to mention that the United States provoked this war when it helped overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected pro-Russian president in 2014. American meddling alarmed the Russians, and they quickly seized Crimea, where a substantial Russian naval base is located.

Pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists, aided by the Russian government, have been fighting the Ukrainian army in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine since 2014--resulting in a stalemate. Then in February 2021, President Vladimir Putin decided he's had enough and ordered the Russian army to invade Ukraine. 

So far, the Ukrainians have held their own, aided mightily by high-tech weapons and money donated by the NATO countries and the United States. The US alone has invested $100 billion in the Ukrainian Project.

Ukraine launched its highly publicized counteroffensive against the Russians in the late spring of this year. It is now August, and it is clear that the Ukrainian counterattack has failed.

Now Ukraine seeks to heat up this war against Russia by other means. Earlier this year, the Ukrainians launched missile attacks against the city of Moscow. They also attacked the Kerch Bridge, a critical land link between Crimea and the Russian motherland.

Russia retaliated by canceling the grain agreement that allowed Ukrainian wheat to be exported by sea. Russia also began bombing Odessa and other important grain ports on the Danube River.

Now the war has spread to the Black Sea. Ukrainians have attacked at least three Russian military vessels and one civilian ship. Russia promised to retaliate and began intensifying its aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Perhaps Americans should be grateful that the Ukrainian counteroffensive failed. Some military analysts believe a successful counterattack might provoke the Russians to use tactical nuclear weapons.

Biden apparently believes attacks on Russian shipping, the Russian heartland, and the city of Moscow will force the Russians to abandon the war. If so, he is delusional. The Russians will never surrender Crimea or the Donbas.

American foreign policy is directed by nincompoops. Our NATO allies are beginning to realize they were snookered when they agreed to back Biden’s foolish war in Ukraine.

No one can predict the event that would prompt the Russians to use tactical nuclear weapons, but we may soon find out. President Biden seems determined to drive Russia to the breaking point.

The United States is courting mortal danger by meddling in Eastern European geopolitics, and the mainstream media is complicit in this insane behavior. Meanwhile, Americans are mesmerized by the new Barbie movie, a fantasy flick for people living in Fantasy Land.

Psst: Have you seen the new Barbie movie?