https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mike-pence-issues-warning-to-donald-trump/ar-AA1yU7Vz
https://www.msn.com/.../mike-pence-issues.../ar-AA1yU7Vz As Trump prepares to sell out Ukraine, Pence raises a flag. https://apnews.com/article/nato-ukraine-us-hegseth-trump-russia-a3ca747b102cae6737436596444a32d0. As expected, Trump will end the current fighting, but what a price. He is negotiating in secret behind our backs and Ukraine's with a 90-minute phone call to Putin. If he freezes the Ukrainian war fight at the current front lines, he is not negotiating in good faith and US national security interest, but he capitulating and appeasing. The author of The Art of the Deal has already violated the premises of a successful deal. Trump's artless deal would validate Putin's steal. Trump gave away two aces in advance of the "negotiations. The boundaries of Ukraine returning to the pre-Russia invasion and NATO membership are off the table, as stated in advance.
To think this is "peace in our time" is either self-delusional or conning the American people. It is no better than in 1938 when Chamberlain handed parts of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis. That epic error in the face of a determined aggressor looking for Lebensraum is similar to Trump's plans in 2025 in the face of Russian determination to reconstitute the old USSR boundaries; it is equally heading toward another epic mistake. Trump's art of the deal could validate Putin's steal. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump's alliance with Putin's Russia is a fool's gamble.
Here is what is at stake:
1) At stake immediately is the security of Western Europe and NATO members, small and weak ones, the target of Putin. The Baltics and Moldova are at risk, which will test NATO's entire purpose and eventually destroy it.. Attacking one member is an attack on all, and there must be a counter-attack and come to the aid of the victim members. That is called mutual defense, and that is why NATO was formed, to counter future Russian aggression and, in their unity, make Russia understand such aggression is self-destruction. Now Trump is blowing that strategy up. Putin will be free to subvert and use other means than the military to take over what is left of Ukraine, he thinks, and he can march into the Baltics with no fear that NATO will put up a fight with military resistance thanks to the election of Donald Trump. Trump may think he bought peace. Putin will see it as a green light to take his crusade to other countries. The immediate concern is the security of the rest of Ukraine from Russia taking advantage of the weakness of Europe's military to stop it.
2 )Much of the raw earth minerals and important natural resources, such as gas and oil, are located in the parts the Russians already control; Putin wants to be located in the areas of Ukraine that Russia controls. Trump's art of the deal could validate Putin's steal. The ignorance of Trump's minions showed when the new head of Treasury demands that Pres. Zelensky of Ukraine handed over half of the lithium deposits in Ukraine to the US as payment for our past and future support of them,, without realizing those deposits were in the hands of the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5297752/trump-administration-presses-ukraine-for-a-rare-metals-deal-in-exchange-for-aid
3) Capitulation and appeasement will not lead to "peace in our time" but to future wars any more than they did in 1938. So long as Russia feels unfettered and has its stated goal to reassemble the old boundaries of influence and control, there will not be peace in our time. To think that Western Europe sees its own security threatened by Putin would not put up a fight is, at best, self-delusional, and there will not be peace in our time. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Is it 1939 all over again, a bookend of my life?
I once thought Putin's grab, after he failed to invade Kyiv, was to get a land bridge to their new territory in Crimea (which the West graciously allowed). It is not just that; it is natural resources. The point everyone except Trump et al. gets is that Russia is out to get the NATO small counties in the Baltics for access to warm water ports, among other desires to reassemble the influence boundaries of the old USSR...of all of Eastern Europe. They may wake up and find Russia at their doorsteps if not gobbled up by Mother Russia and guns pointed their way. That is why Poland, Germany, Finland, and Scandinavia are so very alarmed, and they pledge armies and resources, which now exceed the US total budget spent to defend NATO. More than ever, Europe stepped up the plate out of fear of the Russian stated goal to reconstruct the old USSR's glory days satellites, now mostly NATO members. Trump conned his followers in his first term to say he would not come to the defense of a NATO country that did not pay their dues to NATO. The uninformed had no clue that there are no "dues," only pledges to spend 2% of their GDP based on per capita data on defense. Germany had disbanded its military years ago, and now it must rebuild it from scratch. Trump did not make them do it: Russia's invasion of Ukraine did it. Finland and Sweden, after years of neutrality, joined NATO for the same reason: mutual defense in numbers of allies who would respond.
The Trump regime's membership in NATO for Ukraine has always been off the table. Others may disagree, but Trump's the boss now. There may not be room, even given the Trump/Putin bromance, to get Putin to agree no further military action in Ukraine, but he might.. Russia can always use other, more subversive methods to grab the rest of Ukraine. A non-aggression pact is useless because of that, but it would serve as propaganda for the record to calm the nerves of any opposition. Easy to predict: both Trump and Putin will claim victory. Ukraine will get screwed. Peace in our time will be a farce in the long term, but today, it will make Putin look good and Trump appear weak. Appeasement is not a good look, whether it was a planned strategy or a cave-in.
The lesson Putin will get is that if you just wait for Trump to get elected, everything will be alright with Russia. Taking that lesson to heart, expect the US to belly up if Putin makes a grab of the Baltics while Trump is still in office. . Trump, in his first term, already proclaimed war in the Baltics is not worth a war.. Bye-bye, Baltics.
According to my sources familiar with European currents of thought, we could expect bilateral mutual defense pacts or a new umbrella organization outside of NATO to guarantee the remainder of Ukraine's national independence from Russia. It has a chance. Poland, Germany, France, and Ukraine are likely to do these mutual defense treaties. There could be others like the UK or Italy or others who could play some backup role or join. The umbrella will not likely be the EU because there are those in it who are playing footsie with Putin. Zelensky, speaking in Munich at the Security conference on 2/14/25, called for a new European army to stop Putin.
Here is per capita NATO contributions per member per capita per percent of GDP. . https://www.google.com/search?q=nato+contributions+by+country+per+capita&rlz=1CAJFMC_enUS1016US1016&oq=nato+contributions+by+country+per&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i512j0i390i512i650l2.120405415j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The economic reasons Russia wants to annex Ukraine ..oil and gas sales to Europe
Donald Trump Speaks to Vladimir Putin, Negotiations to End Ukraine War 'Immediately' - Newsweek
per Google AI: Ukraine's oil and gas reserves are located in the Carpathian region, the Dnieper-Donetsk region, and the Black Sea-Sea of Azov region.
- The largest oil and gas producing region in Ukraine
- Home to about 80% of Ukraine's proven natural gas reserves
- Includes the Dnieper-Donetsk and Lublin shale gas basins
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