Dateline: Washington DC
This weekend I watched a man demonstrate courage. He walked into a room stacked with partisan fighters looking for him to bow down to their master. The clamored for him to bend his will to those of their leader. They peppered him with inane questions- why didn’t you wear a suit? Have you thanked Donald PERSONALLY? He certainly had to know this was what was waiting for him. He had to understand, the summons was not so the two leaders could have a genuine dialogue. I doubt anyone in the Ukrainian delegation believed the meeting would be anything but pressure from President Trump on President Zelenskyy to acquiesce to all the current administrations desires. You might say it was a political ambush. I certainly will.
Bullying would be another word for it. Otherwise, why would you pack so many members of the administration as they did into that room? Why only admit administration friendly journalists? It looked like there were dozens of people off to each side of the chairs where the two presidents were seated. This was textbook negotiation techniques from business school. Overwhelm. Outgun. Talk over. Interrupt. You could almost Jack Donaghey in the background telling someone that Trump lost because he spoke first. Negotiation is the realm of the Macho. The only good thing we got from it was a picture of Marco Rubio looking fat, embarrassed, and bored. But then I imagine that is Rubio’s status quo.
Knowing then that this was a setup from the word go, and that largely the only interest the Trump administration has in his country is to strip mine it for every mineral or raw material it has, President Zelenskyy walked into the lion’s den. I can only assume he expected exactly what he was given. He did not waver. He did not back down or capitulate.
Let’s remember, diplomacy has never been about thanking the American people nor the administration in charge at the time since largely, international issues exist longer than any administration does. I don’t recall the US thanking allies who came to our aid after 9/11 directly. I don’t recall a sitting president going to one of the allies who sent troops to die in Afghanistan directly thanking other nations leaders. Maybe they did, and I just don’t recall. Really though, obligation ought not be mixed up with generosity. Our Vice President, ridden with the brain worms that infect our Secretary of Health and Human Services, launched into the most idiotic tirade our country has seen since Joseph McCarthy. This should surprise no one who has ever heard JD Vance speak. Vance is an opportunist who only looks at pro/con in simple terms because he is calculating and manipulative. If there is any chance of a plus one for him, you can be sure he will take that opportunity. In this case, fealty to Donald is the opportunity, and so voicing a deeply stupid and irrelevant admonition of President Zelenskyy not thanking Trump personally keeps him in his lord’s good graces for another day. Donald is a Lannister. Loyalty matters. This is not news to anyone.
This was a display pure and simple about humbling Zelenskyy and forcing him into capitulation and aimed at all our other allies around the globe who are not doing what Donald wants when Donald wants it. I cannot fathom that Zelenskyy did not see it coming, but the necessity of coming to Washington is obvious. A refusal to do so would not help Ukraine in any way and be seen as an abandonment of Ukraine’s biggest supporter. Whether you like Zelenskyy or not, he did not have much choice but to be “impolite”, as Ian Bremer called his performance on Instagram. What option once he was seated with a rambling, as usual barely coherent Donald, did he have? To let them ramble and berate him? He would have been accused of being subordinate- of being stupid and tongue tied. Should he have acquiesced there and then, only to renege later? Then he would be called a liar- his word would mean nothing, even for a politician. Get up and leave? He’s scared. No largely his only route once he was at the White House was forward, was not to allow them to shout him down, to shut him up, to not give in to the idiocy on display by the sycophants and Donald. As Ed Harris types to his wife back on the platform in the Abyss- “Knew this was a one-way ticket, but you know I had to come” Sometimes in life doing the right thing means taking the hit when you know it is coming.
Even those who oppose Zelenskyy in Ukraine are praising his performance (and there are pockets of political opposition. He is not universally loved, but then no leader probably ever is. Whether he truly is a good politician or was a politician of the moment, remains to be seen). I’ve been to Ukraine. Been to Kyiv, unlike our VP. I can say with certainty that Ukraine wants to be western. That they want to be Ukrainian and not Russian. They have much more in common with NATO than the Russians, and they want more of that, more of what we have. They told me of dreaming of a bright future, of no more political corruption, and of economic success. I talked with men in their mid to late 20s who remembered the last few years under the Soviets and the years after. They decried the pro Russia policies, corruption, and fraud under Viktor Yanukovych. One of my developers shared with me how his father in the 1980s could not get work as a scientist because of his leanings away from the Soviet bureaucracy. He languished in punishment. Many talked about being a small part or knowing of people who took part in the Orange Revolution in 2014. Yanukovych was deemed as responsible for killing over 100 protesters during that uprising and is in exile in… Russia. I saw nothing from anyone indicating they’d like to return to Russian rule. A three-year war with Mother Russia seems to echo that sentiment.
There were pundits immediately after the invasion by Russia in 2022 who said largely, this was the US’s fault because we allowed talk on Ukraine joining NATO and fully westernizing as an ally. We weren’t backing them fully (as in troops there, or with any show of force that would have discouraged Putin) with any real support. Putin saw this, and reacted as expected, seeing it as encroachment. Having a NATO ally right on the border with Russia was impermissible. The pundits downplayed Putin’s desires some claimed he had about gaining back territory lost when the Soviet Union imploded. They chalked this up to reactions based upon poor NATO/Western European/American proposals. Smarter foreign policy wonks than I have opinions on that, but to me, it shouldn’t matter. We are where we are. I don’t doubt those are some of the reasons for Putin’s war. I also do not doubt that there are others, and those may be paramount. What I can say is that a country ought to have the right of self-determination. I have always felt this, and that’s why I could never understand the United States involvement in many of the proxy fights in South America or for the war in Vietnam, to name a few. But then I never bought into being a cold warrior. I don’t believe we have to constantly have an enemy to fight and belittle. One of many reasons why I differ from most republicans I suppose.
I don’t know where we go from here. It was always obvious because of his comments in February that Trump felt the winning card in bringing peace to the region was by the subjugation of the Ukrainian people and her leaders, and forced alignment, if not outright submission to, Russia. And as usual with his ego, a win was not enough. He needs to humiliate the loser. Zelenskyy is back in Europe, being hailed and supported by the other NATO countries, with many taking to social media to show their distaste for Trump’s actions and continued hysterics. At some point the Win and Humiliate doctrine will be diminishing returns. Tariffs and threats won’t hold forever. For countries we hold little sway over, they may very well begin to boycott the United States. Because of the tantrum in the White House, some may decide it’s worth the pain to fight back. The bully will stand exposed. If our threats become hollow or our ability to inflict pain lessons/inflicts more pain at home than abroad, Trump and Vance may find themselves alone, save for Russia and Israel. And even they may leave us once our value decreases. That sounds far-fetched but, if it were you summoned to see these people, knowing only total appeasement and utter submission would satisfy them, and then only for a time- the deal would change at their whim until they have squeezed everything, they can from you- why wouldn’t you fight it?
Слава Україні!
Slava Urkaini. The fight goes on…
Intellectual Dandruff 