"If I Had Been President, the Russian-Ukraine War Would Never Have Happened"

   

“If I Had Been President, the Russian-Ukraine War Would Never Have Happened”

“America can no longer be trusted to side with its democratic allies against authoritarian aggression, a realization that is slowly dawning on leaders around the world and which will have far-reaching implications in the years to come.” 

 David Faris, Associate Professor, Roosevelt University, in the February 20th Newsweek

If you repeat it enough, require your subordinates to repeat it enough, and if there is absolutely no way to prove or disprove that statement, well this is how autocrats take credit for something that didn’t happen and rewrite history to glorify themselves. Kind of like Kim Jong-Un’s fame in North Korea as a golfer who was “well-known” for an unusual number of holes-in-one that even the highest ranked professional golfers could never claim. But I have to admit that until Donald Trump began assessing blame, taking credit for “solutions,” rewriting history while predicting the future of his success, even looking at the other great autocrats of the 20th and 21st centuries, Trump has won my revisionist “first place.” With false indignation, Donald Trump’s historical fake news now has United States glorifying its biggest enemy post WW2 – Russia.

Trump’s efforts have been massive, sufficient to cause the United States to switch sides (from backing Ukraine/Europe to now supporting Russia). In the process, Trump has abandoned America’s traditional European allies, cutting both Europe out of the “peace efforts.” Trump is in direct discussions with Putin and his diplomatic functionaries. Unlike Europe in WW2, which was directly attacked, whose cities were bombed (many into oblivion), with vast segments of their populations (particularly Jews and folks considered to be unacceptable outsiders) marched into forced-labor death camps and whose economies were decimated, the American industrial machine – based on massive power generation over-capacity from FDR’s New Deal make-work projects – created wartime values that elevated us into being the most powerful nation on earth… the United States was itself spared from most of the WW2 damage.

Add the rebuilding contributions of the Marshall Plan, our post-WW2 era combined a grateful Europe, and a ground-up rebuild of much on non-communist Asia, to our GI Bill that educated hordes of Americans into the talent-driven top of the roost, created a technology vector that continues to this very day; we also provided home ownership to millions. The American dream left a legacy of both geographical and upward mobility, where 90% of the next generation would earn more than their parents. Today, even assuming a child finds his or her way into a school district of even a modicum of quality, the 90% statistic fades into 50-50, where home ownership is rapidly moving into history books.

As our nation faces billionaires attempting to pile their bloodlust for a massive tax cut on the backs of everyone else, particularly that segment of our social strata that often is voiceless and powerless by reason of their poverty and social condition, we are running a parallel intercept that chastises our most reliable allies. We ignore that it was Europe that suffered the most from Nazi (white Christian nationalism), a continent witnessing yet another dictator (Putin) loom over them. Russia has invaded a European neighbor, Ukraine, still smarting from remaining open scars from Russia’s unending assault… from force-marching Ukrainian Jews into trains and then gas chambers, to starving 4 million Ukrainians to death in Stalin’s post WW2 with his failed agricultural demands, to invading and annexing Crimea (2014) and invading and decimating the rest of Ukraine in 2022. As the Wall Street Journal (February 21st) puts it: “The war Russia is waging against Ukraine isn’t just about territorial gains or global power projection. For Ukrainians, the generational trauma of suffering under Russian and Soviet rule motivates them to keep fighting.” Some of Trump’s rightwing favorites, like the February 21st NY Post cover above, reflect rightwing resentment of Trump’s leaning into Putin. Could the rest of Europe be next?

As Europe suffered horrible Nazi-inflicted losses during WW2, they passed laws making resurrecting Nazi symbols and racism illegal… yet the elections in Germany show that the call of simple solutions – them vs us blame after rewriting history into “correct thinking” – has risen again. It’s a common theme in a continent that failed to stop Hitler, a man who was the master of that blame, and where the United States (in the person of US Vice-President JD Vance) recently chastised Europe for attempting to repress a resurgent neo-Nazi AfD political party, thus violating our “common value” of “free speech.” As Trump demands half of the value of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals for the military aid we have provided, we should know that Europe (which actually has contributed more) would get nothing. Trump also purposely excluded Europe a seat at the “peace talks” with Russia.

“US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky have entered a war of words after the US leader initiated talks with Russia about ending the conflict, but did not include Ukraine… After Zelensky said Trump was in a ‘disinformation space’, Trump called Zelensky a ‘dictator’ - a remark condemned by Kyiv's allies.” BBC.com, February 20th. Trump may have backed off his accusation that Ukraine started the war with Russia, but his strident tones and clear worship of Putin the war criminal has resulting strong negative polling for Trump is his “peace-talk-washing” of Putin and Russia… at the expense of our allies… and our credibility.

“Zelensky also said he would like Trump’s team ‘to be more truthful’ as he offered his first response to a series of claims that Trump made a day earlier, including falsely suggesting that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which [entered] its fourth year….The comments were a staggering back-and-forth between leaders of two countries that have been staunch allies in recent years under Trump’s predecessor. While former President Biden was in the White House, the U.S. provided crucial military equipment to Kyiv to fend off the invasion and used its political weight to defend Ukraine and isolate Russia on the world stage...

“The Trump administration has started charting a new course for the U.S., reaching out to Russia and pushing for a peace deal. Senior officials from both countries held talks Tuesday to discuss improving ties, negotiating an end to the war and potentially preparing a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after years of frosty relations.” Hanna Arhirova and Justin Spike, writing for the February 20th Associated Press. In times of instability, the power of an unchecked strongman, becomes simple “us vs them” solution, especially when he is backed by a large political party. The question for Ukraine and Europe remains how much they can resist a strongman from the United States, if they have the resolve to do so, and whether that means they need to prepare for a direct military conflict with the United States.

I’m Peter Dekom, and even if Trump manages to “broker” a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, is that reality likely to produce a better and more stabilized world for Europe and the United States… or just another step of the kind of appeasement the was a prelude to WW2?