Zelensky must agree to abandon claims to Crimea, or the Ukraine war will end badly

 As reported in the New York Times, Vice President J.D. Vance proposed an end to the Ukraine war on these terms: Russia will keep the Ukrainian territory it now holds, including Crimea, and Ukraine will abandon its efforts to join NATO.

Vance's proposal is reasonable. Indeed, all parties must agree to a settlement somewhat under these terms, or the war will drag on indefinitely and thousands more Russians and Ukrainians will die.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that Ukraine will never agree to allow Crimea to return to Russia, arguing that his nation's constitution forbids it. This is nonsense.

Crimea has been part of Russia since the 18th century, and Russia continued to have a military presence there even after Ukraine gained its independence in 1991. Eleven years ago, Russia annexed Crimea, and the Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia.

Russia will never give Crimea back to Ukraine, and everyone knows that. Zelensky's refusal to consider the issue means he is willing for the Ukraine war to go on indefinitely, with the U.S. footing the bill.

The world is well aware that Ukraine suffered mightily under Russian rule. The Holodomor and Stalin's terror campaign are still in Ukraine's national memory. Nevertheless, Russia's claims on Crimea and the largely Russian-speaking regions of the Donbas are reasonable.

The fighting will either end this year or escalate. If Zelensky refuses to bargain in good faith, I believe the U.S. should wash its hands of the Zelensky regime and end all military support.

Now is the time for the Democrats to pause their hysterical criticism of the Trump administration and show their support for President Trump's peace efforts. 

Democrats will have plenty of time to call Trump a Nazi, a criminal, and a rapist after the Ukraine war is concluded. Until that fighting stops, the Democrats need to behave like grown-ups and support Trump's peace efforts.

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

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.

Zelensky’s victory plan for defeating Russia could get us all killed

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States last week to pitch his victory plan for winning Ukraine’s war with Russia. Zelensky’s schedule was packed. He gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, spoke with former President Donald Trump, and met privately with President Joe Biden. 

Yet he still had time to campaign for the Democrats in Pennsylvania. Was the little soldier interfering with our presidential election to benefit Kamala Harris?

Zelinski’s victory plan has two components. First, he wants Ukraine admitted to NATO. Second, he insists that the Western allies allow him to attack the Russian motherland with advanced weapons systems, including long-range missiles acquired from the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said plainly that NATO membership in Ukraine could lead to nuclear war. Putin has also said that Russia might respond with nuclear weapons if Ukraine fires Western-supplied long-range missiles into his country.

I don’t believe President Biden’s handlers are stupid enough to allow Ukraine to fire US-made missiles into the Russian heartland. Their plan is to allow the Ukraine war to drag on for as long as it takes until Russia loses heart and admits defeat.

That plan won’t work. The Russian economy is growing despite Western sanctions, and the Russian army is much bigger now than it was when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, the war has been a disaster for Ukraine. Its cities and infrastructure are being pounded into rubble.  More than 6 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded.

There are only two likely outcomes of the war in Ukraine. First, the West can assure Russia that Ukraine will not join NATO and accede to at least some of Russia’s demands for annexation of Ukrainian territory. At the very least, the West must admit that Crimea is part of Russia.

Alternatively, this war can drag on until one side or the other miscalculates, and the war escalates into a nuclear conflict. If that happens, the baby boomer generation will send its grandchildren to Eastern Europe to fight World War III.

Let us suppose the US is plunged into a nuclear war due to missteps by our nation's bungling diplomats. In that case, the Democratic Party can take comfort in the knowledge that its dream of destroying the American economy, American values, and American culture was finally realized.

It was necessary to destroy Ukraine to save it.