After warning so many White House admins blundering with Putin, I don't care if they listen to me as long as they are listening to reason. If you make the same mistake twice you are either a fool or it's not a mistake at all, it's collusion & corruption.
I blasted W Bush for treating Putin like an ally after 9/11, but they were both new on the job in a crisis. By 2008, Putin wasn't a mystery, but Obama gifted him the Reset. Trump was Putin's fan and beneficiary. Biden talked tough, but is repeating the reactive pattern.
As I just said on CNN, I *hear* Scholz, Macron and Biden talking, but I don't see anything new. Putin was "a pariah" in 2008 when he invaded Georgia, invaded Ukraine & shot down MH-17 in 2014, etc. And? He hosted the World Cup in 2018 and Nord Stream 2 went ahead. Pariah?
I'm not in the mood to be charitable when thousands more innocent people may about to be murdered by a man I was told repeatedly I was overreacting to call a dictator and threat.
Once again, dictators don't ask why, they only ask why not. If you don't act to stop them, they assume you are fine with what they are doing, but must say that you aren't for show. It's up to the leaders of the free world to prove Putin wrong. I'm not sure he is.
Just one example of the thinking that got us here, the dismissive tone of a so-called Russia expert in a review of my 2015 book Winter Is Coming. He had already invaded Ukraine & annexed Crimea, but I was overreacting! washingtonpost.com/opinions/chess…
Many lives are at stake, but so is the global order based on the rule of law. Putin's invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea shook its foundation. Now he wants to shatter it. If the free world is worth defending, it must be defended now. video.snapstream.net/Play/79yBSXy8o…
Words matter. It's a Putin crisis, not a Ukraine crisis. There are no separatists; they are Russian occupation forces. There is no Russian president; there is a dictator with nukes who wants the world to dance to his tune. Words matter, but they have never stopped a dictator.
For predicting Putin's moves, just see what he sees. He looks around and doesn't see forces coming to defend Ukraine. He hears leaders of mighty nations only talking instead of acting to stop him. He sees promises, not action, and he knows promises are made to be broken.
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All true, but focusing on Witkoff misses the big picture in these so-called peace plan revelations. It’s what many of us have said since January: The Trump family & team are allied with Russia against Ukraine and Europe for profit, and there are no US national interests involved.
Where the plan came from, Russia, is irrelevant to them if it helped them get what they want from Russia. Witkoff is loyal—but to the goal of unlocking Russian business and billions for Trump and cronies. Ukraine is an annoyance, blocking this plan by refusing to surrender.
Trump's envy and affinity for Putin, MBS, and other dictators has always been clear. They do state business the same way, for personal power and profit, not national interests. It’s easy, behind closed doors with no record, oversight, parliament or free media to interfere.
Do not fall for the desired Kremlin/Trump narrative of Ukraine "rejecting peace". The plan was a surrender document that would have crippled Ukrainian sovereignty, which is what they’ve given so much blood to defend since the Maidan Revolution exactly 12 years ago today.
No one wants the war to end more than the Ukrainian people and President Zelenskyy. No one. But they are not willing to betray the memory of their thousands of dead—the brave soldiers and innocent civilians—by rewarding Russia and weakening themselves for the next attack.
I just met a remarkable man whose caring and courage have produced a must-see film, "Mr Nobody Against Putin". Pavel "Pasha" Talankin documented two years of everyday life in the small town of Karabash, where he worked at a school. Plain, horrific reality of Putin's Russia.
Even for me and my wife, no strangers to the depravations of the USSR and Putin's dictatorship, what Russia has now become down to the brainwashing of children was shocking to see. A history teacher idolizing Beria & Abakumov as former students return from Ukraine in body bags.
"Mr Nobody Against Putin" is definitive proof of why Western leaders still talking about negotiating peace with Putin are fools at best. This isn't my Soviet paranoia or saber-rattling. This is the raw truth of Russia, a country twisted into a nightmare for perpetual war.
No personal experience. As with Trump's authoritarianism, and the antisemitism rising on left and right, Marxism and its stalking horse democratic socialism spreads easily among those too young and/or ignorant of their history. The moral clarity of the Cold War is long gone.
The Soviet Union was evil. We knew it and Americans knew it. Engagement has blurred the lines with profitable moral relativism. We get our iPhones from a Communist dictatorship using slave labor and call it progress. Our energy purchases fund feudal monarchies and Russian wars.
Instead of listening to people who have lived through the fall of democracy, or the delusions of socialism, many want to live through it themselves, like diseases they have no immunity to. Unfortunately, the learning process can be very destructive.
Like any successful mafia boss, Putin's axis of dictatorship is based on loyalty and the use of force. Free world powers sit complacently atop their towers of weapons and wealth, sending concerns and press releases. Russia, Iran, Cuba et al send troops, missiles, and jets.
Of course, that loyalty can come to an abrupt end at any moment, as happened to Assad in Syria a year ago. No honor among terrorists and thugs. Ukraine's valiant resistance has weakened Russia's ability to support its allies and proxies.
Even so, the West quavers and self-deters, which perpetuates the cycle of violence from small threats and conflicts to larger ones. Russia and other authoritarians and terrorists see no reason not to use violence early and often. Deterrence saves lives, appeasement loses them.
No one could watch Bondi‘s performance, and that’s what it was, of stonewalling and trolling and think that she’s part of an administration that believes they will ever leave power or be held accountable.
This isn’t the typical lack of foresight of having procedural changes come back to bite you. This is a group so invested in shattering the institutions of American governance and in personal enrichment that there can be no way back.
Trump and Miller are openly talking about arresting opposing elected officials. They are attacking so-called corrupt judges, a term they use for anyone who disagrees with them in order to debase the word, which of course applies only to their own monumental looting campaign.