by Oui
Mon Mar 3rd, 2025 at 01:38:19 PM EST
"There Never Was a Good War or a Bad Peace" --
Benjamin Franklin's diplomacy and the 1783 Treaty of Paris
Jeffrey Sachs on the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting and
what comes next for Russia, Ukraine | MSNBC |
No Such Thing as a Good War or a Bad Peace | Slate - June 1999 |
To invoke for a moment the Vietnam War: Americans had to learn the price (more than 50,000 men) of ending a war ignobly. It is now clear that an ignoble peace isn't really so bad a thing. It can always be rationalized and softened by the arts of public relations and adept deployment of language.
Benjamin Franklin's words continue to haunt me: "There's no such thing as a good war or a bad peace." Perhaps what the Great War needed was less of the innocent idealism of Woodrow Wilson and more of the conscienceless adaptation to facts as practiced by the deplorable Bill Clinton.
Now, the matter of the tactical continuity between the two world wars. In general, yes, despite such novelties as air power and atom bombs. The infantry I fought in (admittedly for only four months) was hardly distinguishable from its 1914-1918 counterpart, except that for trenches, you'd have to read holes. I never saw a plane in all my time at the front, and I saw only one tank. The tactics of the Civil War (or even the Indian wars) were ours.
The former Soviet satellite states need to move on from history and not fight centuries old battles ... end the self-consuming HATE of your former enemy ... learn from Ghandi, MLK and Nelson Mandela.
Watching Volodymyr Zelensky during his talk with Trump in the Oval Office ... the fiery eyes of a warrior filled with hate, losing his footings on facts due to decades of propaganda, made Trump decide he is not the leader needed for Ukraine to make a lasting peace with Russia.
Unfortunately Zelensky found a new calling by Meloni, Macron and Starmer in London for further war escalation and deaths of his people. A repeat of Spring 2022 with Boris Johnson. Some asses never learn from past mistakes ... looking for the medicine man of the Old West.
My earlier observations ...
Volodymyr's Machiavellian State of Mind | 23 Feb. 2025 |
What is one person's life worth? 3 Years ago it could have been a bargaining chip ... today he's old, tired and worn out ... absolute beyond any sense of reality.
Ukraine could trade territory in potential peace talks with Russia, Zelensky says.
Zelensky says 'will not be simple' to replace him as Ukraine leader | RFI |
US Republicans had suggested he may have to resign after US President Donald Trump dramatically turned against him during a contentious Oval Office meeting about the war with Russia on Friday.
"If they replace me, given what is going on, given the support, simply replacing me will not be simple," Zelensky told British media.
"It's not enough to just hold an election. You need to also not let me run. This will be a bit more difficult. Looks like you will have to negotiate with me" he added.
"And I said that I am exchanging for NATO. Then I fulfilled my mission."
'Will Not Be Simple' To Replace Me As A Leader: Zelensky | World News - WION |
The war meanwhile is not a stalemate but RFA creeping advances on a daily basis
Ukraine SITREP Mapping ] Zaporizhzhia Offensive Coming ⁉️
Contra-revolutionaries in the new EU Commission molded by VDL, darling of the extreme rightwing Hudson Institute … the heart of US oligarchy and wars
EU top diplomat Kallas on 'Russian traps' and European red lines | EurActiv - 18 Feb. 2025 |
Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas warned in an interview with Euractiv that Europe's discussion over a possible peacekeeping force in Ukraine risks playing into a "Russian trap".
Just one day after an emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris, Kallas cautioned that attempts to find a coalition for a peacekeeping mission were premature, as the Russians "don't want peace, there is no peace."
Before those discussions, she said, Europe's focus should be on putting Ukraine in a position where they are "able to say no to a bad deal", and that "the stronger they are on the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiation table."
Projection of your own fears onto the adversary. Stupid fools.
President Trump put off by Zelensky’s bitterness and hate for Russia not ready to negotiate peace
“You don't have the cards right now.
With us, you start having cards.”
“I'm not playing cards. I'm
very serious, Mr. President.”
Inside the 139 minutes that upended the US-Ukraine alliance | CNN News |
Efforts were taken to prepare Zelensky for a successful meeting with Trump, who is famously susceptible to flattery and highly attuned to how he’s being treated. The Ukrainian president was warned to focus squarely on the minerals deal — and to avoid getting drawn into a fight.
“I told him this morning, ‘Don’t take the bait. Don’t let the media or anyone else get you into an argument with President Trump. What he’s doing today is resetting the relationship,’” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was among a group of Republican and Democratic senators who met Zelensky before he came to the White House.
Other European leaders who’d come through the building this week offered Zelensky their own guidance, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who has found success in an approach to Trump that balances adulation with pushback.
Still others — including some US officials — tried to discourage Zelensky from making the trip to Washington at all, believing work was still needed to strengthen what had already become a hostile relationship.
[…]
Perhaps taking a lesson from the parade of foreign leaders who had preceded him in the White House over the past month, Zelensky did not arrive empty handed. He brought with him the UFC belt won by the Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk last year.
The colorful gold belt, which sat propped on one of the end tables as the two men got to talking, went unmentioned during the talks, glinting under the lights.
For the first 40 minutes of their talks, Trump did not evince outward bitterness toward Zelensky, instead discussing the minerals deal they were planning to sign later in the day.
The vice president speaks up
Joining the conversation after remaining mostly silent, Vance interjected — “Hold on. Hey, I want to respond to this” — to make the case for Trump’s efforts at bringing the conflict to an end.
“The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy,” he said, directing his comments to Zelensky.
That is where everything went south.
A bristling Zelensky – himself unaccustomed to public rebukes after three years of stalwart Western support – indignantly laid out the ceasefires Russia had broken in the past.
“What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What – what do you have – what do you – what do you mean?” he asked incredulously.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance responded from his place on the sofa next to Trump.
It only devolved from there.
“I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said in a sharp reprimand. “You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
When Zelensky tried – somewhat unsuccessfully – to get a word in, Trump erupted in anger.
A few minutes later, Trump dismissed the media from the room.
A rattled Ukrainian delegation — including the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington Oksana Markarova,o who stopped taking notes during the meeting and simply placed her head in her hands — left the Oval Office to regroup in the Roosevelt Room, just down the hall.
Huddling with his own key advisers to assess the situation, including Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Trump was enraged, saying he felt disrespected by Zelensky’s tone.
“Zelensky played it as wrong as he could play it. He came into Oval acting like a tough guy. It didn’t play well. Everyone in the room felt insulted,” one US official said. “Now Zelensky will have to figure out how to fix this on his own. We can’t fix it for him.”
The president ultimately decided that Zelensky was “not in a place to negotiate,” one White House official said. He directed Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz to deliver the message to the Ukrainians who were waiting nearby: It was time for Zelensky to leave.
Pure first reaction in the Oval Office is indicative of the disaster
Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova seen facepalming during Trump, Vance argument
London Ukraine Summit Propose More War Escalation, Not A Peace Now Deal
President Zelensky tells Russia to 'stop attacking' Ukraine following air strikes | BBC News |
’NATO Is Dead,' Says Chatham House's Timothy Ash | Bloomberg Interview |
John Mearsheimer: Trump pulls US from NATO as Russia 🇷🇺 advances … Ukraine 🇺🇦 left to fight alone with a divided Europe in panic mode.
