Vlad gave his answer to peace, Mr. President: We must re-arm Ukraine

NY Post ^ | 7/5/2025 | NY Post Editorial Board

[Kazan]

I’m sure if Marcus even voted in a Republican primary, he voted for Nikki Haley.

[mbrfl]

Putin’s moral purity or impurity is irrelevant to the discussion. I never even brought it up. I simply addressed your assertion that the west somehow forced Putin’s hand.

At the time of the invasion, there was nothing other than the usual talk that’s been going on for the past few decades about Ukraine joining NATO. There was no more of a threat of it occurring than there had been 20 years ago. What DID change was that we had a corrupt and weak usurper occupying the White House at the time. The weakness and ineptitude he showed with the Afghanistan withdraw was what convinced Putin to invade, not the usual murmurings about NATO.

[nathanbedford]

Shut the war talk, neocon.

See reply #58.

[mbrfl]

>>”I don’t think that Donald Trump is unaware or indifferent to the need to maintain alliances that kept us safe for most of my lifetime”

Agreed.

>>”I think [Trump] .. is acutely aware of the risk from China and that may be why he feels an urgent need to sacrifice Ukraine to advance a larger conception of a new world order that contains China and converts Russia into a trade partner, if not an ally.”

I don’t know that I would go that far or put it into such binary terms regarding Ukraine. A couple observations I would make about Trump. He’s a realist when it comes to foreign policy. But at the same time, his thinking is not conventional. I think his goal is usually to find a deal that works for all parties. Now maybe that’s not possible here, but Trump has challenged conventional wisdom in the past, and has often been proven right.

I don’t think Trump wants to sacrifice Ukraine. In fact I think the reason he’s so engaged on the matter is because he doesn’t want to see Ukraine dominated by Russia. And he’s publicly stated on multiple occasions, that he believes Putin wants ALL of Ukraine. Now he hasn’t directly said he wants to prevent that, but I think that’s the clear implication.

His willingness to accept some Ukrainian territorial concessions to Russia is just Trump, the realist, talking. He sees the best achievable outcome as a peace deal that may cost Ukraine some territory, but plants the seeds for a stronger more prosperous and more independent Ukraine tied to the west by economic interests and a more engaged Europe willing to increase its military spending in order to establish a greater deterrence capability in the future.

[nathanbedford]

… he [Trump] believes Putin wants ALL of Ukraine. Well, his telephone call of two days ago certainly should have disabused the president of any illusions about Biden's intentions.

So now we will see if your assessment of the president's intention is accurate: "he hasn’t directly said he wants to prevent that, but I think that’s the clear implication."

I think Trump has now been put to the test so we will see how he responds. For the record, I agree with you that the sacrifice of some of the Eastern provinces is both realistic and inevitable.