Posted on 03/02/2025 4:24:05 AM PST by MtnClimber
This column was lightly edited and reprinted with permission from Victor Davis Hanson’s X account.
1) Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not grasp—or deliberately ignores—the bitter truth: Those with whom he feels most affinity (Western globalists, the American Left, the Europeans) have little power in 2025 to help him. And those with whom he obviously does not like or seeks to embarrass (cf. his Scranton, Pa., campaign-like visit in September 2024) alone have the power to save him. For his own sake, I hope he is not being “briefed” by the Obama-Clinton-Biden gang to confront President Donald Trump, given their interests are not really Ukraine’s as they feign.
2) Zelenskyy acts as if his agendas and ours are identical. So, he keeps insisting that he is fighting for us despite our two-ocean distance that he mocks. We do have many shared interests with Ukraine, but not all by any means: Trump wants to “reset” with Russia and triangulate it against China. He seeks to avoid a 1962 DEFCON 2-like crisis over a proxy showdown in proximity to a nuclear rival. And he sincerely wants to end the deadlocked Stalingrad slaughterhouse for everyone’s sake.
3) The Europeans (and Canada) are now talking loudly of a new muscular antithesis, independent of the United States. Promises, promises—given that would require Europeans to prune back their social welfare state, frack, use nuclear, stop the green obsessions, and spend 3% to 5% of their GDP on defense. The U.S. does not just pay 16% of NATO’s budget but also puts up with asymmetrical tariffs that result in a European Union trade surplus of $160 billion, plays the world cop patrolling sea-lanes and deterring terrorists and rogues states that otherwise might interrupt Europe’s commercial networks abroad, as well as de facto including Europe under a nuclear umbrella of 6,500 nukes.
SNIP
Good thing you aren’t in charge. With that attitude WWIII
We’re talking about Russia aligning with the USA. It’s not politically feasible unless Russia ends its alliances with those countries.
Never, ever, allow Zelensky anywhere near the White House again. If necessary, send him a deal to sign and tell him to return it via Fedex.
I think that things happen by degrees. Iran may not be a player much longer in any case.
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