On the face of it, President Trump is right to try to end a destructive war in Ukraine that is now approaching the three-year mark, and to open talks with Russia. This war has to end, and at this stage it can end expediently only through negotiations.
Yet the way the president is going about this vital task is misguided, counterproductive and unfair to Ukraine.
In quick order, Mr. Trump has sent his lieutenants to negotiate with Russia without the participation of either Ukraine or the NATO allies who are most directly threatened by a resurgent Russia; he has cruelly suggested that Ukraine — not Russia — is responsible for the war by not making some unspecified “deal” at the outset; he has demanded access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth as the price of continuing military support; and he has baselessly called Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, a “dictator without elections.”
In effect, Mr. Trump and his administration are pivoting U.S. foreign policy 180 degrees, pointing the way to a peace that would run counter to the American and Western mission of securing a sovereign, independent, democratic and prosperous Ukraine. It is a reversal of the past three years — since Russia invaded its neighboring nation, strong majorities of Americans of every party and persuasion have supported Ukraine — but also a repudiation of a nearly eight-decade core belief that the United States was safer in a world where it stood against aggression and authoritarianism and for freedom.
Isn’t it obvious? The counter to this is not gonna come from the US, where the Democrats have no power and Republicans are too afraid of getting primaried (or worse!) from the MAGA mob.
The new German chancellor is hinting that Europe might have to start to go it alone. Blow up NATO and make a new NATO, which doesn’t rely on the US. Start funding the Ukraine opposition directly. Oh, and stop trading oil in dollars, too. If they play it right, the EU can emerge as the world’s new superpower. The US is too busy eating itself to put up any counter to that.
Maybe someday some sanity will return to the US, but the rest of the world will never trust us again, knowing how unstable we are. Until we fix our system with all of its “gentleman’s agreements” and “unitary executives”, we will always be (at most) one election away from total chaos.
A lotta people are pointing to China as the inevitable winner of all of this, but your point about Europe using this lapse in U.S. soft power to make a move is salient. I’m a little bit worried about the rise of fascism in Europe though, doesn’t NATO-skepticism go hand-in-hand with Euro-skepticism? It feels just as likely that “Europe going alone” ends with a lot of nations going toward isolationary policies.