This morning (Mon Feb 24, 2025) the USA voted “NO” along with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries on a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for its occupied territory to be returned. Fortunately, the resolution passed anyway –overwhelmingly.
Does the Trump team really believe their own lies? Ukraine did NOT start the war. Putin started everything in 2014 when he took over the first part of the Ukraine (Crimea). Supposedly that was it. But no, Putin’s Russia continued for more than eight years (2014-2022) to stir up rebellion in the Donbas Region of Ukraine (biggest city, Donetsk).
After years of telling the world he would not invade Ukraine again, and months of gathering tens of thousands of Russian soldiers along the border of Ukraine, Putin ordered a massive invasion on February 24, 2022. But Putin failed to take the capital of Kyiv as he had planned as part of his blitzkrieg.
Trump campaigned on the promise to end the war in Ukraine on Day 1 of his presidency. Of course that was a lie; it was an impossibility no matter what he thought. You could call it hyperbole (he just meant quickly), so – not the worst lie.
No, Trump hid the worst lie for the first 30 days of his Presidency. Then on February 19, he told reporters at Mara Lago that lie: “Ukraine should not have started the war.”
Again, let us be clear: Russia started the war. Not Ukraine.
He waited until his Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Saudi Arabia (of all places) having direct diplomacy with long time Russian foreign minister Lavarov. Leaving out Ukraine and Europe from participating. He wrongly excluded Zelensky, and proceeded as though it were a done deal. (It’s very close he said today.)
ANALOGY: How would we like it if Russia were to take part of Alaska? They would have first offered to pay back the $7.2 million we paid to buy it from the Tsar of Russia in 1867. We would say, “Nothing doing, that was a long time ago.” But, perhaps arguing that it was part of the historical Russian empire, they decide to attack Alaska and take it. And after two years of fighting in Alaska, China invites Russia to negotiate a settlement without including our US President.
I am shocked at and ashamed of my country blaming Ukraine for the war, even though this should NOT be a surprise. Three years ago, on February 23, 2022, literally, the day before the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Trump said that Putin was a genius for declaring three Ukrainian provinces “Independent.” Talk about encouraging Putin to invade! (Maybe now is the time for all of our former Presidents to interfere by calling out Trump as the traitor that he is.)
One year of war later, Trump reiterated his praise for Putin. “Yes, he is very smart, … and our leaders are dumb.”
Putin has been fooling America for 20 years. That’s been great for the business oligarchs in Russia, Europe, and America – just don’t criticize Putin or you may be poisoned or tortured. Or, if your country stands in the way of his goals, you may be invaded.
And soon the King of Retribution will be after us critics the same way his friend Putin has done.
Appeasement
Donald Trump is repeating the mistake of Neville Chamberlain in 1938.
At the end of this agreement, in which England and France agreed to Hitler’s taking part of Czechoslovakia by force in exchange for no more take-overs, Chamberlain famously declared that there will be “Peace in our time.”
On September 1, 1939, after months of secret planning, Hitler launched a full-scale attack on Poland, a blitzkrieg. Poland was conquered in just 35 days. So much for trusting and appeasing a dictator. And Poland wasn’t enough. Hitler wanted all of Europe except for Italy, reserved for his buddy, Mussolini. It was World War 2.