To folks who are surprised by Comrade Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine, I’d just remind you that he has a history of betraying US allies to the benefit of Russia. Let’s start back in 2019.
After Kurdish forces helped the US to dismantle the ISIS regime, Trump casually betrayed them. Something like 11,000 Kurdish men and women died fighting against ISIS. With ISIS largely destroyed, Turkey, who had their own problems with Kurdish forces, wanted to invade northeast Syria and attack the Kurds. A thousand or so US troops were in the way. Trump decided to withdraw the US troops, saying, “We never agreed to protect the Kurds for the rest of their lives.”
Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians were displaced; hundreds were killed by Turkish forces. A few days later, Vladimir Putin announced Russia had made a pact with Turkey to take joint control of the Kurdish territory. Russian troops moved in and took command of the abandoned US military bases in Syria. A month later, Trump held a White House reception for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, thanked him for the job he’d done in Syria and called himself “a big fan” of Erdoğan.
And don’t forget, a year later, in 2020, US intelligence agencies reported that Russia was offering/paying bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan for attacking and killing coalition forces—including both US and British troops. Members of both political parties (not quite ALL the GOP had gone full MAGA-brained back then) insisted Trump raise holy hell with Russia and demand the bounties stop.
Trump did…nothing. Wait, not true. Trump 1) invited Putin to visit the US and stay at a Trump-owned property, 2) decided, after a call with Putin, to pull US troops out of NATO partner Germany, 3) suggested Russia should be reinstated in the G7 summit (a suggestion which other G7 nations soundly rejected), 4) refused to implement measures to combat Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election, 5) worked with Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman (who, let’s not forget, had a Washington Post reporter kidnapped, killed, and dismembered) to raise oil prices (which benefited US oil companies while raising prices of gasoline for consumers), 6) had his Department of Justice drop criminal charges against the Russian citizens and firms that criminally interfered with the 2016 election, and 7) had his DOJ drop charges against his former National Security Advisor who’d twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interaction with Russian intelligence services.
Now, of course, he’s betraying Ukraine. Again. Remember, Trump’s first impeachment was grounded in his attempt to lean on President Zelenskyy. He tried to coerce the recently elected Zelenskyy into conjuring up some dirt on Joe Biden’s son by withholding missiles which Congress had already authorized. Trump wasn’t even very subtle about it; it was basically flat out mob-style extortion.
This time he’s betraying Ukraine while claiming to negotiate a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. Negotiating, my ass. This is what he expects from Ukraine:
- for Zelenskyy to apologize for not being grateful enough to him personally,
- to agree that Russia can keep the territory it illegally acquired in the invasion,
- to agree never to join NATO,
- to accept all that WITHOUT any guarantee of security in case Russia decides to end a cease fire.
This is what Trump expects from Russia:
- the US will lift sanctions against the government of Russia
- the US will lift sanctions against specific Russian citizens and oligarchs.
That’s it. Essentially, Comrade Trump wants to ‘negotiate’ Russia’s victory. He’s openly serving Russian interests. He has no interest in the welfare of Ukraine, or Europe, or humanity in general. He has no interest in democracy; to be fair, I don’t think he has any real interest in fascism either. Trump’s only real interests are in getting and keeping power, and punishing his detractors.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Trump doesn’t just betray US allies; he betrays everyone. His fellow Republicans, his business partners, his charities, his clients, his wives. In a very real way, I don’t think we can say Trump has betrayed the US, but only because he was never loyal to the US to begin with. He’s never been loyal to anything or anybody.
gregfallis.com 
All important points. I remember thinking the rest of America would wake up to him and turn against him with his cruelty towards the Kurds (back when I was young and naive).
Also what 47 wants for the U.S. – half of Ukraine’s essential minerals in perpetuity, expecting $500 billion as payback for the $120 billion the U.S. has “given” them (though it was used mostly to buy American munitions). Loan shark rates.
Someone reminded me of something he might have against Canada: the Trump Towers in Toronto and Vancouver both failed. I still think he wants our minerals, but that may factor into it.
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It takes a lot, but I’m so upset and angry that I’m pretty much out of sensible words at the moment. So much I want to scream into the void. I don’t know where to start.
All my life America was our ally. And being much bigger and swankier it seemed like a bit of a beacon on the hill. Statue of Liberty and all that. Suddenly America is turning fast towards our enemies and stabbing us in the back. An upending of the world order. A demolition of all the West was supposed to stand for.
So perhaps not out of words after all. But disjointed and fragmented. Our hearts are weeping for that scandalous fabrication in the WH last week. Ukraine is abandoned. America still wants to plunder and steal all their valuable assets whilst letting Putin steal the land. It’s barbarous. I am dreaming of a military coup, but doubt it will happen.
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There is no treaty between the US and Ukraine so calling it an ally is inaccurate. It’s time to end the dangerous proxy war.
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You think a treaty is required in order to be an ally? Now THAT is inaccurate. An ally is simply an entity that agrees to side with another entity over an issue. In that sense, the US has long been an ally of Ukraine.
But in 2021 the US also signed a bilateral security agreement that affirmed that the “security of Ukraine is integral to the security of the Euro-Atlantic region” and recognized “the need to preserve and promote Ukraine’s sovereignty, democracy, and capacity to deter and respond to current and future external threats.”
That external threat, obviously, is Russia. By siding openly with Russia and Russian interests, Trump has betrayed Ukraine. He’s also betrayed the concept of representative democracy.
The war could end tomorrow. All Russia has to do is stop attacking Ukraine. Remember, back in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, which was recognized as part of Ukraine, and launched a semi-covert land war in the Donbas region in an attempt to seize the area. Ukraine has been fighting Russian aggression for eight years BEFORE the 2nd and more overt Russian invasion three years ago.
Russia should relinquish the territory they illegally seized in Eastern Ukraine. Further, they should withdraw from Crimea. At the very least, they should cease combat operations AND agree that Ukraine is a sovereign nation.
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Brother, this is your blog and your space so I won’t argue with you but to say that this is missing a lot of pieces of the puzzle. Ukraine and Russia agreed two times on how to settle differences that arose after the West started interfering in their relationship. These agreements “Minsk” were violated by Kiev/Kyiv, who did not respect the language or autonomy provisions and truce but continued firing howitzers into the Donbas. There’s a lot more to it than the Western talking points you repeat above – the nationalist irredendist Ukrainian right wing would like nothing better than a rump Ukraine with Lviv/Lvov as its capital. And there are plenty of the same hard right nationalist political position who would support that territorial change in Lithuania and Latvia. These are not allies of the United States, Canada or any liberal democracy. They are using the West for a very nasty political cause that for geopolitical goals of a part of the oligarchy, Western democracies are unfortunately supporting. We have been propagandized, just like for Israel.
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Minsk2 was a mess. Ukraine and Russia each interpreted it differently, in contradictory ways. In Ukraine’s version, Russia would withdraw its troops, return Donbas to Ukraine, then elections would be held. Russia’s version was just the opposite: elections first, the border would be established, then troops would be withdrawn.
The fact remains that Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Donbas violated international law. Western Europe had a stake in preventing Russian aggression.
That said, I agree with your take on Israel. That’s an ongoing clusterfuck in which the US is aiding in genocide.
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