MAGA and Trump, modern-day appeasers, are carrying water for Putin. Trump and MAGA are now supporting Putin''s pitch: save lives (instead of saving Ukraine's independence from Russia) so agree to Putin's terms to even first begin peace talks. Putin's conditions: agree to hand over land to Russia and withdraw troops from them and agree never to join NATO. As Harris put it: Putin's terms are surrender., Trump, like Putin, wants Ukraine to surrender first before they can negotiate. we will talk about what part of Ukraine Zelensky will hand over. In short, first defang Ukraine and then talk. Not only is that a non-starter, it paves the way for a full Russian takeover of the rest of Ukraine using subversion or military action because it takes away the ability of the remaining part of Ukraine to use force and Western support to stop any takeover. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harris-trump-russia-ukraine-2024/
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/whos-at-2-percent-look-how-nato-allies-have-increased-their-defense-spending-since-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/#:~:text=In%20total%2C%20NATO%20countries%20now,of%20their%20GDP%20on%20defense
Whether Trump is an appeaser or not will be on the agenda, no doubt, in the VP debates on October. Expect JD Vance to respond to that accusation if Walz makes it. Vance's position non that entry into NATO is a return for some "guarantee of Ukraine's sovereignty" and unstated expected gifting of some Ukraine territory to Russia. That's a Sudetenlike trap, and Zelensky is justified in alluding to it:
Recently, MAGA has been trying to rewrite history, blaming Biden was to blame for Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The more important question is what "deal" would Trump hand Putin if Trump won in 2024 on day one of swearing in. He seems to be echoing Putin's position for whatever reason. It begs the question of whose side is Trump on, anyway. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/trumps-charge-that-biden-caused-russias.html
These fools opposing US aid to Ukraine are like the appeasers in 1938 led by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who handed the keys to the Sudetenland to Hitler in Munich, thinking it would stop WWII and there would be "peace in our time". Sudetenland, a province of Czechoslovakia, became part of Germany. Hitler claimed that was his last territorial claim to northern Europe. One year later, the rest of Czechoslovakia had become a state Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, controlled by Hitler, reneging on his agreement at Munich and opening the door for the invasion of Poland and France later in 1939. MAGA, the American Firsters, and Trump are the Chamberlains of 2024 who want to give Putin what he wants: Ukraine. In some fantasy ideas, it would avoid WWIII. https://www.pbs.org/.../watch-trump-protgmises-to-settle... Like Hitler, Putin, too, lusts for the expansion of control over neighboring land. Hitler called his goal Lebensraum (living space). Putin is also a dictator, with his publicly stated goal to destroy the USSR's former satellites' alliance with the West in order to bring the USSR's Cold War former satellites back into Russia's control. It satisfies his hypernationalistic international expansionism at the expense of Western democracies and strengthens his control over his own citizens who buy into his vision. His invasion of Ukraine was his first step, and war is one of his methods of accomplishing that.
Why should we care? Putin gets it, and we should, too: Those in control can determine their destiny; the rest either follow or are victims
What MAGA should have learned from the past 85 years is that appeasement of a determined aggressor leads to war, not peace. Appeasement is fool's gold. It leads aggressors to epic miscalculations. To aggressors, appeasement is a signal of weakness and lack of resolve of their target takeover. It is not a bone thrown to keep the dog quiet. Japan and Germany thought the American Firsters opposing involvement in Europe would keep the US neutral and provide easy pickings to get away with their territorial grabs. Japan and Germany learned a hard lesson...but at an enormous expense of America's blood and treasure.
How determined is Putin to go further after he absorbs Ukraine into Russia? It may come as a surprise to MAGA to know that Putin is not America's friend. Using his own words and his published ideology, Putin's goal is to make Russia great again by making America and Western democracies weak again, perhaps more like they were before WW II., isolated and divided. To increase his power at home and abroad, his goal is to weaken NATO and the G7, and Ukraine was to be his first step with the use of war. https://www.gmfus.org/news/putins-revolution-and-war-historical-crossroads For Putin, the loss of the USSR's satellites at the end of the Cold War was Russia's "genuine tragedy". https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7632057 His regime wants "Ukraine to come home to Russia". https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-ally-says-ukraine-is-definitely-russia-rules-out-talks-with-zelenskiy-2024-03-04/
It might come as a surprise to MAGA if they get their news only from media "they trust" to learn that Harris has the endorsement of 700 military and national security leaders of all political affiliations. https://www.axios.com/2024/09/22/national-security-officials-endorse-harris
Putin's miscalculation was that Ukraine would be unable or unwilling to resist what he thought was a three-day march to the Ukraine capital. He had reason to believe he could succeed since Trump's bromance with him was a sign of lack of Western opposition, a US president who could be manipulated by flattery, the election of a comedian as Ukraine's new president, years of low-level stagnant warfare in eastern Ukraine, and Russia's blackmailing control of oil supplies to Western Europe. His takeover of Ukrainian Crimea only got a verbal slap on the hand and some sanctions. Instead of weakening NATO, Biden was elected. With his leadership, NATO members rallied to support Ukraine with military and economic aid because they also began to see their own members as Putin's next target. Instead of destroying NATO's mutual defense clause, Putin's Ukrainian invasion backfired. The membership of Sweden and Finland completed NATO's surround of Russia's western facing borders. With the prospect of a Trump return to the White House and his isolationist, anti-alliance resolve, you cannot blame Putin for still thinking his stalled takeover of Ukraine is a temporary setback. He is just biding his time until Nov.5 and Trump's election.
As VP Kamala Harris noted in her joint meeting with President Zelensky of Ukraine on 9/26/24, MAGA's demands that Ukraine agree to give up chunks of land to Russia and agree not to join NATO are identical to Putin's recent conditions to end the war. It is a demand for surrender. As Harris said, the US support of Ukraine is not an act of charity but an act of self-interest and national security. "Isolation is not insulation", Harris's direct rebuke of MAGA and American Firsters, 2024 edition. Isolationism will not insulate us from Putin's plans. https://www.cnn.com/.../poli.../trump-russia-nato/index.html) FYI MAGA, Europe has contributed twice as much to Ukraine's defense as the USA, but unchanged, Trump's way to end the war is to give Russia whatever" the hell they want." He'll just pick up the phone to Putin, his friend, and settle the matter. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-trump-promises-to-settle-war-in-ukraine-if-elected That is music to Putin's ears.
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