I do understand the reasons as to why these hurty feelings exist. People, quite rightly, feel sorry for Zelensky. So do I. The man is in a terrible position. He is fighting a war he can’t win and he has lost thousands of both military and innocent Ukrainians along the way. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. The war cannot be allowed to continue. As Trump rightly told him he is not the one holding the cards.
The best way out for Zelensky was to agree to what Trump likes to call a deal. This was what this meeting was supposed to be about. The reason for Zelensky’s visit was to sign a deal he had already accepted. Well, that’s what we all thought. Either someone or something caused Zelensky to change his mind. Maybe he did it off his own bat.
Whatever the reason the American team was caught off guard. The timeline for the day was laid out on the basis of Zelensky signing the deal. The fact that he decided to take a different tack caused the whole thing to blow up in his face. It’s no wonder the Ukrainian ambassador had her head in her hands, as she would also have been taken by surprise.
Zelensky decided to adopt a strategy that was neither in his nor his country’s best interests. It is unwise to go into a meeting and take a position of which everyone else in the room is unaware. It is not a good strategy, however well intended, to come across looking like you’re there to bite the hand that feeds you.
Zelensky’s change of tack then forced Trump into the position of trying to explain to him why it was in his best interests to accept the deal, something he was not expecting to have to do. Like everyone else involved, Trump thought he was there to sign the deal. Trump then had to strengthen his language to convince him of his (Zelensky’s) position and in doing so caused the world to be shocked by what they saw. Nobody should have been. Zelensky made a strategic blunder.
Trump is a bully is the common thinking. Trump can be a bully to get his way. I won’t argue with that. But hey, here’s another thing for those with hurty feelings to digest – many successful people in this world are bullies. That is partly the reason they have got to where they are. I am not saying I agree with the premise: I am simply stating a fact. Putin is a bully; Xi is a bully. Politics is not a game of tea and crumpets.
Now I’ll bet dollars to donuts that these sorts of heated discussions have taken place between leaders in the past. Behind closed doors. It can be argued that is where this should have taken place. For whatever reason it wasn’t. It could be because it was thought that the simple signing of an agreement was not going to cause friction.
Trump is on television in the Oval Office many times each day. That’s how he operates. He wants people to see what is going on, whether it’s discussing policy or signing executive orders. It’s called transparency, another thing he campaigned on. What we saw was the sort of discussion that has been going on between leaders, hammering out their points of view, for many decades. Many of us witnessing it for the first time might be shocked but we shouldn’t be. That is how it works.
I’ll guarantee Churchill, Roosevelt, Gorbachev and others have all had these types of interactions. This meeting turning out the way it did was caused by Zelensky’s decision to not sign the deal. It is understood he now will. It appears that, post-meeting, someone has made the man see sense.
All Trump wants to do is end the war and, like what happened after WWII with Japan, get people into Ukraine to help rebuild the country. It is far better to put money into that than waste it on an unwinnable war. Trump wants something in return, which is where the minerals come in. Remember, the American people elected Trump to end the war. He campaigned on it and therefore he has their support. And, while Americans are in Ukraine, Putin will not make a move.
After four years of the hopeless Biden administration, Americans are looking for people who will represent them with strength. The people Trump has in his Cabinet will do just that. There is yet another point to this. Putin might be looking gleefully at what happened with Zelensky, thinking he got a dressing down. But he will also be thinking, as will the likes of Xi and others, that Trump is not a man to be messed with. They know if they step out of line there will be consequences.
Don’t think for a moment Trump is going to let Putin off the hook in all of this. He will also be read the riot act and told what will happen if he tries a similar act of aggression again. Last time it was a threat to bomb Moscow which kept Putin in his box. Trump could repeat the threat. Many people will think that is a way to start a war. Quite the opposite. Like the nuclear threat it is a way of keeping peace in the world.
The latest news out of Russia is that civil war is breaking out and there are the beginnings of a real uprising against Putin. People have had enough, which also gives credence to what Trump is trying do. The majority of people don’t want war. A civil war is something Trump doesn’t have to worry about. He has an overwhelming mandate.
These aggressors are basically cowards and when threatened they sit tight. This is what happened the first time with Trump and there were no wars. They waited until Trump left office and then both Russia and Iran made their moves. Trump, despite how negatively he might be perceived, is definitely the man for the job. Anyone in America who disagrees will be a Democrat and a warmonger because that party wants the wars to continue. These are the people who support the Military Industrial Complex, Big Tech and Big Pharma.
It is ironic to me that the only person striving for peace is heavily criticised for it outside of America. Ukrainians want peace, Russians want peace. The world wants peace. But the one man who is trying to achieve it is vilified for it.
Zelensky is now going back, hopefully with some humility, to sign the deal that I am sure his people want. All of the carry on that has got so many people worked up could have been avoided had he signed the deal in the first place. I hope he has learned his lesson.
Whatever the reason the American team was caught off guard. The timeline for the day was laid out on the basis of Zelensky signing the deal. The fact that he decided to take a different tack caused the whole thing to blow up in his face. It’s no wonder the Ukrainian ambassador had her head in her hands, as she would also have been taken by surprise.
Zelensky decided to adopt a strategy that was neither in his nor his country’s best interests. It is unwise to go into a meeting and take a position of which everyone else in the room is unaware. It is not a good strategy, however well intended, to come across looking like you’re there to bite the hand that feeds you.
Zelensky’s change of tack then forced Trump into the position of trying to explain to him why it was in his best interests to accept the deal, something he was not expecting to have to do. Like everyone else involved, Trump thought he was there to sign the deal. Trump then had to strengthen his language to convince him of his (Zelensky’s) position and in doing so caused the world to be shocked by what they saw. Nobody should have been. Zelensky made a strategic blunder.
Trump is a bully is the common thinking. Trump can be a bully to get his way. I won’t argue with that. But hey, here’s another thing for those with hurty feelings to digest – many successful people in this world are bullies. That is partly the reason they have got to where they are. I am not saying I agree with the premise: I am simply stating a fact. Putin is a bully; Xi is a bully. Politics is not a game of tea and crumpets.
Now I’ll bet dollars to donuts that these sorts of heated discussions have taken place between leaders in the past. Behind closed doors. It can be argued that is where this should have taken place. For whatever reason it wasn’t. It could be because it was thought that the simple signing of an agreement was not going to cause friction.
Trump is on television in the Oval Office many times each day. That’s how he operates. He wants people to see what is going on, whether it’s discussing policy or signing executive orders. It’s called transparency, another thing he campaigned on. What we saw was the sort of discussion that has been going on between leaders, hammering out their points of view, for many decades. Many of us witnessing it for the first time might be shocked but we shouldn’t be. That is how it works.
I’ll guarantee Churchill, Roosevelt, Gorbachev and others have all had these types of interactions. This meeting turning out the way it did was caused by Zelensky’s decision to not sign the deal. It is understood he now will. It appears that, post-meeting, someone has made the man see sense.
All Trump wants to do is end the war and, like what happened after WWII with Japan, get people into Ukraine to help rebuild the country. It is far better to put money into that than waste it on an unwinnable war. Trump wants something in return, which is where the minerals come in. Remember, the American people elected Trump to end the war. He campaigned on it and therefore he has their support. And, while Americans are in Ukraine, Putin will not make a move.
After four years of the hopeless Biden administration, Americans are looking for people who will represent them with strength. The people Trump has in his Cabinet will do just that. There is yet another point to this. Putin might be looking gleefully at what happened with Zelensky, thinking he got a dressing down. But he will also be thinking, as will the likes of Xi and others, that Trump is not a man to be messed with. They know if they step out of line there will be consequences.
Don’t think for a moment Trump is going to let Putin off the hook in all of this. He will also be read the riot act and told what will happen if he tries a similar act of aggression again. Last time it was a threat to bomb Moscow which kept Putin in his box. Trump could repeat the threat. Many people will think that is a way to start a war. Quite the opposite. Like the nuclear threat it is a way of keeping peace in the world.
The latest news out of Russia is that civil war is breaking out and there are the beginnings of a real uprising against Putin. People have had enough, which also gives credence to what Trump is trying do. The majority of people don’t want war. A civil war is something Trump doesn’t have to worry about. He has an overwhelming mandate.
These aggressors are basically cowards and when threatened they sit tight. This is what happened the first time with Trump and there were no wars. They waited until Trump left office and then both Russia and Iran made their moves. Trump, despite how negatively he might be perceived, is definitely the man for the job. Anyone in America who disagrees will be a Democrat and a warmonger because that party wants the wars to continue. These are the people who support the Military Industrial Complex, Big Tech and Big Pharma.
It is ironic to me that the only person striving for peace is heavily criticised for it outside of America. Ukrainians want peace, Russians want peace. The world wants peace. But the one man who is trying to achieve it is vilified for it.
Zelensky is now going back, hopefully with some humility, to sign the deal that I am sure his people want. All of the carry on that has got so many people worked up could have been avoided had he signed the deal in the first place. I hope he has learned his lesson.
JC is a right-wing crusader. Reached an age that embodies the dictum only the good die young. This article was first published HERE
10 comments:
Certainly without aid from the US and Europe it would have been a very short war which would have ended with Putin taking control of all of Ukraine and all of it's resources. Because this would also have meant that Russia would then have an extended border with NATO countries, Ukraine was given help to resist the invasion. There may even have been an element of "This is just not right" in people's thinking.
The West then did an unconscionable thing, for 3 years it has drip fed Ukraine with just enough weapons to not lose the war, but never enough to win it, and now Trump has pulled the plug on the weapons they already have, making Ukraine's survival even more precarious.
Maybe, because he is so desperate to get a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump has allowed himself to be bamboozled into thinking that Putin is an "Honest Broker", but few others have.
Appeasement of dictators has an appalling long term success rate, Putin won't stop until he is stopped.
Stopping the war quickly has got nothing to do with compassion as Trump would have you believe. Trump and Putin are both desperate for a quick end to the war for their own personal reasons,
Trump, because he has promised Putin he would do just that and Zelenskey's inconvenient insistence on protecting Ukraine's sovereignty is damaging his credibility and his ego. Besides he still bears a personal grudge against Zelenskey for refusing to buckle to his bullying over Hunter Biden. Note how the White House spat was all about Vance accusing Zelenskey of disrespecting Trump. Not good for the narcissist-in-chief.
Putin, because he knows his army is wrecked and will never achieve his war goals, and his economy is tanking as a result. That is guaranteed to piss off both the generals and the oligarchs who will be getting very restless about their own positions. People have fallen out of 3rd floor windows for a lot less and Putin clearly is feeling the heat.
So it's not about lives lost. It's about protecting Trump's fragile ego and Putin's grip on power. Who cares about the safety of the Western World. Clearly not this mysterious columnist.
While I largely agree with the overal article, civil war in Russia?!?
This was the goal of the Ukraine war all along, what evidence do you have of such outlandish claims?
Russia currently has thousands signing up each month to defend mother Russia. Putin has no serious political rivals & enjoys a 80% approval rating
The idea that Trump will treat Putin like Zelensky is hilarious. Putin isn’t a coked up clown dressed in a military costume
I agree with JC.
A bit rich criticising a writer of columns for using anonymity Jonesy. Spoken like one who isn’t brave enough to write them him or herself - preferring instead to lob rocks from the sidelines while hiding behind a nom de plume.
It’s a bit like the old adage - “better to stay silent than by opening one’s mouth, prove your lack of rational thinking beyond doubt”
An outstanding point that has not been discussed in NZ is the preceding hours/days Zelensky was in the US. My understanding from USA reading was that Zelensky was being swayed by the Democrats and that is where the Oval office questions came from , not dipping the pen in the ink and signing the agreed deal.
Mr Bibby. You may remember that somebody once wrote:
"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet"
That profound observation, spoken by Juliet Capulet in Act 2, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, was allegedly penned by William Shakespeare around 1595. Ah, but was it? Perhaps it was Sir Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe, William Stanley, or any one of the 80 alternative authorships that have been proposed for Shakespeare's works.
But the reality is that whoever wrote the line, their identity makes absolutely no difference to the validity of the idea being offered. And the idea expressed by Juliet has stood the test of time and remains as valid in the posts of Breaking News as it did in the First Folio.
So, as I may have mentioned before Mr Bibby, stop stressing over the identity of the author, and concentrate on the ideas being put up for examination. If you don't like an idea tell us all why. Ad hominem attacks add nothing to the debate and just diminish your credibility as a commentator.
As for the Jones Boy, he will continue to follow Juliet's wise advice:
""Romeo, doff thy name".
I’m not stressing over your apparent unwillingness to own up to your true identity Jonesy - just exposing it as a rather strange way of owning your own convictions. In your case, rather cowardly don’t you think.
Anonymity protects your true identity from what?
The fact that some of your accusations may be without foundation perhaps!
In the absence of a reference point, readers will have difficulty fact checking you more extreme observations.
I accept that there may be good reasons why the majority of the contributors to this blog may prefer to remain anonymous but yours appear more related to a fear of exposure as a punter who has backed the wrong horse.
To borrow your phase, it's a bit rich to accuse me of taking extreme positions when your articles and comments support the toxic extremism of Trump. But there again that's your right and I don't need your name as a "reference point" to allow me to pass judgement on the value of your ideas, and challenge them where the evidence allows. Nor do I need to comment on your mental acuity, veracity or general demeanor because that would simply reduce public discourse to the infantile level of Trumpian name-calling. I expect the same courtesy from you.
All right gentlemen, now that we've cleared the air, let's restrict ourselves to the issues.
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