As Trump prepares to sell out Ukraine, Trump's art of the deal could validate Putin's steal....

 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.

Mapped: Where are Ukraine's rare earth mineral resources and why does Trump want them? | The Independent

 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. 

Dnieper-Donetsk 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

Carpathian region Located in western Ukraine and Contributes to 10% of Ukraine's natural gas production. 

Trump is in danger of making himself the Neville Chamberlain of the 21st century

Historical notes: Appeasing Germany in Sudetenland was the beginning of events leading to WWII. Neville Chamberlain, PM of the UK,touting "peace our times", signed the agreement to hand over Sudetenland to Hitler in 1938, leading Hitler to believe he could get his way with appeasers. In 1939, a non-aggression pact that between the Soviets and Nazis lasted until 1941 when Germany attacked Russia in an epic doublecross, but it cleared the way to letting Htiler invade Poland without Soviet interference. . The 1939 pact attempted to divide Europe between Russia and Germany. . A nonaggression pact did not stop Hitler's appetite to grab more land, as Russia found out. Trump would be a fool to trust Putin's word in any non-aggression pact, as well. He is just as determined to retake the old USSR's areas of control as Hitler was to get lebensraum (living space).

MAGA and Trump, modern day appeasers, are carrying water for Putin

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.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7632057

Ukraine Support Tracker: Europe clearly overtakes US, with total commitments now twice as large | Kiel Institute (ifw-kiel.de)

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/newest-magalland-craziness-way-to.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/14/russias-putin-outlines-conditions-for-peace-talks-with-ukraine.html