Clearly, the victim loses.

And that is precisely what will happen if — as the present occupant of the Oval Office has suggested — Russia is granted possession of an inch of Ukraine’s territory as part of a negotiated settlement.

That . . . and much, much more will happen when Vladimir Putin sets his sights on his next victim: Moldova, perhaps, or one of the Baltic states.

Even worse, now the man in the White House is saying that Ukrainian President Zelensky “shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen . . . Zelenskyy [sic] was fighting a much bigger entity, much bigger, much more powerful. He shouldn’t have done that, because we could’ve made a deal … and Zelenskyy [sic] decided that I want to fight.” [Zac Anderson, USA Today, January 24, 2025.]

True, the guy sitting behind the Resolute Desk is talking about putting more pressure on Putin, primarily in the form of bigger and more punishing sanctions. Big deal. How much good have those sanctions done Ukraine over the past three years? The war continues unabated, and Russia — while unquestionably suffering substantial economic distress — has not ceased to function, and has only increased its brutal attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population. And it has pushed Russia into further tightening its alliances with China, Iran, and other enemies of the Western allies.

And, once again, the person who would advise another world leader to give away pieces of his country overlooks the incontrovertible fact that it is Vladimir Putin — not Volodymyr Zelensky — who is the aggressor, the warmonger . . . the bully. To give him one iota of what he is demanding from Ukraine would only clear the path for his mad march through the rest of Europe.

All of which brings me to the most frightening question of all for that occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:

If Vladimir Putin — or anyone of his ilk — came banging at the proverbial gates of Washington, would you just do the easy thing and “make a deal”?

And if you have to think for even a nanosecond before answering, then you do not deserve to walk the same halls that once housed the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Fitzgerald Kennedy — presidents who stood up to our would-be oppressors and kept our country safe and free.

But most of the world already knows that.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/25/25