On 28 February 2025, I went on the “Deep Dive” with LTC (ret.) Danny Davis almost immediately after the war of words took place at the White House between Ukrainian President Zelensky and President Trump + Vice President Vance.
Complete utter nonsense for a once esteemed professor. Bullying, extorsion, taking the territories of other states by force and coercion. This is what felon Trump stands for. No decency watsoever, so ability to conduct diplomatic negotiations. US statecraft is now non-existent. All is the hands of a megalonaniac liar named Trump. Shameful.
I think the mainstream media has got you seeing white as black and black as white to some extent. Mearsheimer was predicting that Ukraine would get wrecked if the U.S. kept on leading it down the primrose path 10 years ago. As he himself has said, the results are tragic, but also quite predictable. Trump has his flaws, but wanting to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible is not one of them.
Your response is absurd and utter nonsense. You just jumped on that old hate Trump bandwagon pushed by the democrats during his first and now his second administration. You voiced nothing of any significance other then hate and still are aligned with a malignant agenda that may bring about a nuclear war. When Biden came back from his trip to Russia, what did he say? In a one liner he spelled out his agenda, Putin has got to go. what exactly does the Dr before your name mean?
I essentially agree that Stephane's post was nonsense, but it's nonsense that's circulated widely in the mainstream media, so I thought it was easy to jump to those conclusions. Your last question got me to do a little digging though. The easiest part was clicking on Stephane's substack link and finding this: "Spent over 25 years in intelligence and research-related positions in Canada’s federal government. Widely published in the field of intelligence studies." From there, it was relatively easy to find the following articles from what I assume are the same Stephane: https://www.tandfonline.com/author/LEFEBVRE%2C+ST%C3%89PHANE
So looks like Stephane was in the Canadian intelligence community so long that they've begun to believe the lies that I believe the intelligence communities tend to feed the mainstream media when it comes to these types of subjects.
Hi, I just have a very bad feeling about the outcome of Zelensky's visit to the White House, and I think his casual, and boyish attire basically said I'm in no position to make such a big decision. During Biden's administration the president fully acknowledged Putin has got to go. It's no secret that the ongoing war in Ukraine is a proxy war used to bring Putin down no matter the loss of Ukrainian lives, or the destruction of Ukraine and the lives of it's people. In Trump's first term in office he was Putin's puppet, and it's interesting that the so called liberals of the democratic party are engaged in that kind of commentary once again, Here's Sander's making that point. https://kyivindependent.com/bernie-sanders-on-trumps-alignment-with-russia/ I use to be a registered democrat, but gave that alliance up in 2017, since I have a bad feeling they are going to go down the same road once again.
I’m Canadian Mexican, not American, but I definitely used to support the left in both Canada and the U.S. more before Covid. I think the left made some very bad decisions during Covid, which basically turned me against them on that. The same with their decisions on Ukraine. Trump certainly has his flaws, but trying to broker a peace deal with Russia on Ukraine as soon as possible isn’t one of them.
Today there is greater clarity on what happened, but yesterday was nothing but confusion as to why Zelensky did an about face. I never liked him, never trusted him, and always thought he was a self serving character. As an American you are indoctrinated with the belief that Russia is an existential threat and sooner or later it very well may bring about your demise. Interesting how hard we work to make that a possibility. The war In Ukraine is often referred to a proxy war, meaning were using Ukraine to do our dirty work, die by the hundreds of thousands for as long as necessary to bring down Russia. A neocon agenda which they have fully adopted. Now they scare me and I loathe them, and that came about due to their authoritarian and lying stance during the Trump years and it's starting all over again, and I have no doubt the democrats are behind the demise of this deal with Russia.
Lets just say I remain very suspicious as to what happened yesterday, and curious as to whether Zelensky was acting on his own or in complicity with certain NATO nations and the democrats as well. The democrats had a goal during the Ukraine war and that was to bring down Putin. They were strongly aligned with the neocons, Blinken was one of those as was Nuland. Bringing down Putin is very important in their desire for obtaining world wide hegemony for the US.
Yes, that's possible, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and so try to always assume that they really believe whatever it is they're saying.
You win, Mr. Donkeycrap! You asked about Dr. Stephane Lefebvre, "what exactly does the Dr before your name mean?". Too bad you don't recall what you wrote. Or are you one and the same?
Your childish hate and your obvious willingness to have adopted every lie told about Trump obscures your objectivity, so your perspective and your conclusions become meaningless.
(Who can remember how the Russia/Ukraine war got started?): I can. Zelensky was right to bring 2014 up, as I do believe that that's really when things started, during Euromaidan. What he -didn't- mention is who helped organize Euromaidan (the U.S.) or anything about who was responsible for the Euromaidan massacre (not Victor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian President at the time, who ended up fleeing the country in fear of his life). Some articles on these subjects:
Whoa there buddy. Just because Fran agrees with Trump on his Ukraine foreign policy doesn't mean he supports rapists. As to your notion that Trump is trying to "appease" Russia, I think what his top priority is to come to a diplomatic solution that would be better than continuing the war. Which gives him a lot of leg room I think, as this war has been brutal for Ukrainians and, to a lesser extent, Russians.
You, and your entire class, are delusional and this will be your downfall, as it is zelensky’s. The dem party and the blob desperately wanted this war. The results were predictable. The deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers are on their and your hands. None of this needed to happen. Just by observing Minsk 2 , Ukraine would still be whole , viable and the slaughter of conscripts would not have happened.
This ‘decency’ you refer it…unspeakable hypocrisy.
The dems/blob have overseen a holocaust in Palestine for Christ’s sake and worshipped the most sadistic war criminal of the century in congress. Trump is no better.
On Ukraine though, his reversal of policy will save the lives of conscripts. You find this deplorable. Why don’t you go to the front lines yourself and experience the reality? The answer : you would prefer that anonymous Slavic men do the dying , the suffering, for you . By the hundreds of thousands. It’s disgusting.
What many often forget is that the Maidan was a NATO engineered “colour revolution” meant to upset the balance of power in the region. Zelenskyy had been bombing villages out prior to the Russian invasion and was goaded by the Obama and then the Biden administration into war.
Russia isn’t not guilty of invading, but the situation is more complex than your childish brain seems to be able to handle.
Trump is rightfully telling Zelenskyy to stop letting Ukrainians get slaughtered.
US "statecraft" had come to an end quite a while ago. Trump is just a louder exponent for that. The "felon" nonsense is just descriptive of where you are coming from. Else, you are right.
Ironically, I think that in this particular case, Trump is actually doing what's best not just for the U.S., but for Ukraine as well. I suspect the only people who benefit from this war continuing are those getting rich off of arms sales.
You have it backwards actually. The purpose of statecraft is to achieve diplomatic goals for your country, not another. The US is not beholden to Zelenskyy; the guy can’t tell them where all the money he has gotten has gone. He’s just a typical jewish conman.
Magnanimous to say to the disrespectful guy “come back when ready for peace!”
I just saw the whole exchange and two times before the conversation deteriorated Zelenski was going against Trump with emphasizing guarantees because “an agreement doesn’t work” and another time again contradicted Trump as he was lamenting young soldiers dying. Zelenskyy interrupted by saying that what the president was saying is disinformation because “our people are going to school in the front lines and … we have beautiful cities”. In both of these cases Trump didn’t respond which I think was incredible self restraint. Interesting it was when JDVance started talking about the president of diplomacy in contrast with the Biden of posturing while Putin shot bullets. It was then that Zelenskyy lost it and started going after Vance and accusing him of being loud which was the end of Trump’s restraint. Vance had already reminded Zelenskyy to be respectful but Trump had to say it again to a man who was speaking over the president of the US in his White House. Trump said it well, “without changing the attitude there was no deal”. And he called it quits. God have mercy!
Right and he shows up dressed like you might to go to the mall! How disrespectful. We've provided them hundreds of billions in defense and he has no gratitude for it. Just expects it to be endless. Well no. If we pay then we decide. If he wants to be in charge of how Putin is dealt with then he can do it without our support. Sure Putin could break a cease fire, any deal carries risks like that.
They are just so unrealistic. Russia is winning on the battlefield and there's no hope to reverse that situation. So the only realistic path forward is to cut your losses and make peace.
No one, including Mearsheimer, questions whether Zelensky determined on his own to behave in this antagonistic, disrespectful manner which he introduced by wearing casual and inappropriate dress. Did he behave in a disrespectful, and challenging manner on his own, or was he operating in complicity with others who do not want a good relationship with Russia? No doubt it's something that I thought about immediately, because when it came to Russia the democrats made a concerted effort during Trump's previous administration to turn him into Putin's puppet. They sabotaged his trip to Russia, and further sabotaged any effort he made to get along with Russia, including pushing the lie of Russia-gate. This is something that should be considered. The democrats backed by the neocons whose agenda the Biden administration adopted may still have their hand in this game and if anything they want to bring Russia down, and their whole political ideology it's at odds with what Trump wants to do.
The main thing here really isn't Trump or Putin but the Ukrainian people. Continuing this war will only harm Ukraine and its people more. As others have said, Trump may not be trying to end this war for the Ukrainian people, but it would still be best for the Ukrainian people if this war could be brought to an end as quickly as possible.
Yeah, I think you got it there. Trump is a vulgar and horrible boor, and a bully. But this thing was done by Zelensky, who was way, way out of his depth. He not only didn't read the room, he didn't consider the nature of the meeting. It was not a negotiation and not a debate -- it was a presser, a TV show, smiles and blather before the signing ceremony. Trump was uncharacteristically gracious at the beginning, but Zelensky was going for him almost from the get-go. Trump: "We are going to end this war" Z: "Thank you for agreeing to stop Putin." And hammered on and on, not listening to what Trump was saying at all.
Zelensky could have tried -- despite indeed not holding any cards -- to have that debate with Trump, BUT NOT AT A PRESSER IN FRONT OF TV CAMERAS.
I've never seen a world leader screw the pooch like that. My head is still spinning.
Now he needs to resign. He has too much baggage to deal with the reality now. Zaluzhny would be the guy needed at this moment.
I like Zelensky. He's intelligent and witty. The best line of the whole awful meeting was when Trump said "Without us, you would have lost in two weeks" Zelensky: "Three days! We already heard that from Putin." LOL! And Trump was wrong -- the U.S. was doing nothing during the first two weeks -- the Ukrainians did that all that by themselves.
But Zelensky's day is done, and Trump is right that the war needs to be ended NOW. Every day which goes by will be worse for Ukraine.
Talks were useful in that Trump team brought some inconvenient truths into the light for the western MSM audience. No substance was really possible though - not yet. Trump admin still hasn't finished consolidating power (and who knows, they might not). When they do, they can make some promises that last until the midterm elections, maybe until 2028. They can't credibly promise the one thing Russia wants, which is to neutralize Ukraine as a future proxy agent for western expansionism. Re-establishing diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow should be considered a win at this point. Ukraine and anyone pretending to care about them should press for ending the war ASAP. With a minimum of decency, this should also include eliminating the Bandera nationalist element in Ukraine, which both Trump's first admin, Biden, and Europeans supported without shame.
Frightening the lack of ability of the host to defuse the situation. Zelensky probably felt quite uncomfortable about the sellout demanded from him. From all viewpoints, Zelensky and Ukraine would be far better off by cutting out the middlemen and talk to Russia directly. Arguably, the Maidan was a huge mistake. The Maidan was, as we may remember, about associating with the EU, which for one came to naught and secondly was against the will of most Ukrainians, albeit by a small margin.
Kiev International Institute of Sociology, November 2013:
"Which way Ukraine should go - which union should join? (population preferences for two weeks before the Vilnius summit)"
The finer points of diplomacy are not Trump and Vance's strong suit, but they are at least being real with Zelensky instead of whispering sweet nothings into his ear while Ukrainians die by the hundreds of thousands. As I think Mearsheimer has basically implied, the best thing for Ukraine is to get back to negotiating a peace deal with Russia as soon as possible.
There was a time when he was talking to Russia, near the start of the war. Alas, the west persuaded him to ditch those peace talks and "keep on fighting". Here's to hoping that Zelensky and any other would be American henchmen countries learn a lesson that Jeffrey Sachs pointed out in a speech he gave to the European Union, with a slight modification from me: being an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but being a friend can be fatal. It all depends on how close you -really- are to the U.S. Sadly, Ukraine was always just a pawn to the U.S. and the new U.S. administration has decided that it has outlived its usefulness. The ironic thing is that trying to end this war is actually the best thing for Ukraine as well, as Mearsheimer has said. Hopefully Zelensky, or whoever replaces him if he's replaced, comes to realize this sooner rather than later.
He even prohibited negotiations with Russia. It shows that he should have stuck with acting. I said what he should do, not what he would do. A competent leader would have recognized by now, that he himself his country were used by the US and draw the conclusions. The west is neither willing nor able to continue to finance Ukraine. Accepting the sellout suggested by Trump (it is not just about rare earths, but also lots of other stuff including refineries, agricultural land being bought up by BlackRock, etc.) will condemn the bled-out country to eternal poverty. As Prof Mearsheimer might say, "the primrose path has come to its end".
Certainly Trump did nothing whatever to ease the situation. Zelensky on his part actively made it worse. Both are conmen, perhaps at different times. Zelensky, when he was elected, was elected on a platform of negotiation with Russia. Which he promptly abandoned. At least Trump, on this topic at this time, is doing the right thing even if for the wrong reason (I think he's saving it for Iran, contra Mearsheimer)
I think Trump is more interested in China than Iran, but I support the basic sentiment that Trump is doing the right here, even if it's just so that he can pivot to another country. In the case of the Ukraine war, I also think that Trump really is concerned that escalating things with Russia could lead to "World War III" as he put it in his tussle with Zelensky. I think he's right on that too.
I understand the need to make a deal as the situation in Ukraine is sadly not going well for them. But since the Americans are so powerful and they have all the cards, as they claim, and good for them, I dont think there is a need to treat a President of another country this badly and bully him like that. He is already down, why try to humiliate him on top of that?
The stance of JD Vance was an eye opener. I had hopes for him but I am now shocked and greatly disappointed. Who says "your propaganda tours" to a visiting politician?!! Would he dare utter this phrase to Putin's face? No.
And why is he so bent on "being grateful" and kept repeating that? Zelenskyy has said multiple times that he is thankful to the Americans, but that is not what is important here. Vance's obsession with that was shocking and immature. The guy is fighting for his country and not only do you want him to agree on something very devastating to him (which fair enough, might be neccessary), but you also want him to do it with a smile and to kiss your ass while doing it.
If politics was just about scolding people you dont agree with, then everyone would be a politician. The reason we vote for other people to do this job is that we recognise that there are some people with better communication and diplomacy skills. But these people it seems have none of that!
I don't think that Trump and Vance were bullying Zelensky, I think they were just trying to point out the reality of the situation. I remember someone saying that a close Zelensky advisor saying that Zelensky had essentially started to believe all the fantasy bs that the western mainstream media is always telling the population. Trump and Vance may not be the most diplomatic, but they provided a much needed reality check.
The reality check is that, powers who once supported you, and actually put you in this mess in the first place, can just like that stop supporting you, blame you for everything and ask you, on live TV to be grateful on top of that.
That's true. But I think it should be said that the Biden Administration is not the Trump Administration. True, the U.S. started arming Ukraine during the first Trump Administration, but I -suspect- that Trump would have engaged in diplomacy had he been President when Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. The Biden Administration, being the Biden Administration, engaged in next to no diplomacy and actually -encouraged- Ukraine to keep on fighting when Russia proposed a very reasonable peace deal during the first few weeks of Russia's military operation/war in Ukraine. A good article on that can be seen here: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ukraine-russia-war-peace-diplomacy/
Yes, but as Mearsheimer has said many times, it has started much earlier than that, with the West and mostly US trying to make them join NATO (and the EU). I dont care what party it was. That used to be the American foreign policy. US is greatly responsible for this situation. Vance demanding "thank you" is ironic, when they (as representatives of the US State) should be apologizing for this mess.
With your logic, every country's responsibility about anything only lasts for the one term of their president. Should then agreements, treaties and responsibilities only be honoured for one term? I am not saying that just because Biden encouraged the war that Trump should continue it. But the responsibility of the US in this mess does not magically disappear every time a new president is elected. Trump is changing US policy without recognizing that US had had a big fault in this mess, and he is blaming Ukraine for everything and treating him like a pariah.
Well, as I've said elsewhere, Trump's diplomatic skills could use some work, but I do distinctly remember him trying to point out that he wasn't President when the dumbest decisions were made, including when the west encouraged Zelensky to squander the best peace deal that Ukraine was going to get a few weeks into the war.
Again, are you saying a country's responsibilities get reset every time a new president is elected? And a country NEVER has any responsibility, and only their presidents have? Does this mean for example that when Hitler died, Germany did not have any responsibility for WW2 anymore? It does not work like that!
The US have dragged Ukraine in this mess. It does not matter who the president was that pushed Ukraine to become a NATO member. Trump and Vance represent the US and NOT themselves. So AT LEAST they could talk to him in a decent manner, since they represent the country who brought him to this mess. That is all I am saying.
This was scripted by Putin. Tass news was right there to film it for Russian TV. Yes I agree that Zelenskyy has no cards left and Ukraine will have to cede territory. But what Russia doesn't understand that is that it's setting up a European version of Afghanistan for it self. So Zelenskyy will likely have to capitulate but many Ukrainians will not. This will become a smoldering peace and will drag on and on. For this "victory" Russia will have to accept decades of gurrila warfare and massive losses of people and treasure.
So Meirsheimer and Sachs are right to point out that this is the only outcome now but I almost guarantee that many Ukrainians will concede now too but start the resistance later.
You may be right, but I'm hoping that a real lasting peace happens. For that to happen, I think that Ukrainians need to examine the roots of this conflict, which go back to 2014.
I stand with Ukraine. Not because I think this war is anything Ukraine has wanted or needed (whatever that might mean). I think Russia’s war is the fault of the United States by disregarding the fears and worries of Russia. Our expansion of NATO has created an existential fear response by Putin since 2007. Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine since 2014 has been destabilizing and, since 2022, catastrophic for the people of Ukraine and Russia. We should have been capable to prevent this and have failed. The cost? Hundreds of thousands dead. The United States needs to own this and balance an end that reflects the concerns and price paid on both sides. Are you for the people or power over the people?
I completely agree with you that Russia's military operation into Ukraine was provoked by the U.S. and its NATO allies. I don't think that Putin engaged in a 'war of aggression'. I think that for 8 years, between 2014 and 2022, he tried to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war raging in Ukraine. It was only after these 8 years had passed and the Ukrainian military was once again pounding on the eastern Ukrainian rebel regions of Luhansk and Donetsk that Putin decided that the only way the situation would be resolved is if Russia stepped in militarily. To date, I have only seen one good article that gets into the critical days prior to Russia's military operation, an article from former Swiss Intelligence Officer Jacques Baud. It can be seen here:
No one paying attention to the issues related to Russia, Ukraine and plethora of instigator provocateurs of NATO western influences should really be surprised. Two things I'll note though is that all the rhetoric previously stated by Russians Putin and Laveroc regarding the Ukrainian Elynsky have been proven. And those who have the mental hate disability 'TDS' throughout mass media access have invariably revealed their hand, (sticking to the mention of cards by POTUS...lol).🤣
The Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy was supposed to be a PR gesture to preclude his signature on Ukraine’s surrender to Russia and debt agreement with the US. A slight diversion happened:
In front of the cameras, the collaborator blamed the defeat on the master for abandoning them. Understandably, he wants his people not to cut off his head for signing a surrender, which would confirm it was all a hopeless situation that the Ukrainians will be paying for a long time. He’s preparing them for the inevitable while trying to save his skin.
I think Zelensky's biggest mistake is that he can't see how his own actions contributed to where Ukraine is now. He can ofcourse blame the Biden Administration and other western officials for encouraging him to continue fighting with Russia instead of making a deal early on, and for lying to him when they said that they'd be there "for as long as it takes", but Trump wasn't in power then. I think what's happening is that Zelensky is at last facing the cold hard truth that his country was always just a pawn to the western elites and Trump had come to the conclusion that his usefulness was just about up. He apparently tried to hold Trump's interest by promising a chunk of Ukraine's wealth, but all it really got him was a meeting with Trump to sign the deal and since he didn't even sign it, I doubt that Trump will want to see him again any time soon. Perhaps he'd see him again -after- he signs a peace deal with Russia and even then, I suspect that the Trump Administration would want an apology for his behaviour as well.
I agree with you that Zelenskyy helped get his country into its awful current position; that's on him despite Biden and EU promises, it's totally reckless. He even seems to believe he’s entitled to demand security guarantees. Biden spoiled him for sure. So far, the drama at the Oval Office has worked domestically for Zelenskyy. “He fought like a lion,” they say. In the long run, though, I don’t think Ukrainian Ultra-Nationalists will forgive him so easily.
As for Trump, he already said: “he can come back when he’s ready for peace”. Zelenskyy is still lucky despite having no leverage.
Now that Zelenski has seriously “pissed his own cheerios” (in the White House, no less!) his best move might be to publicly admit he has a drug abuse problem, immediately step down as ‘fearless leader’ of Ukraine and pray for forgiveness and sympathy from firstly his fellow Ukrainians and secondly from his international ‘partners’. I’m not a betting man but I’d hazard a guess that the odds of that happening are pretty slim. We live in ‘interesting times’
I think Zelensky has a right to be mad, he's just blaming the wrong person. I think at some point Trump even tried to point this out to some extent. It was the Biden Administration and his European "allies" that encouraged him to keep on fighting when Russia offered a very reasonable peace deal a few weeks into the war. I -hope- that at this late stage in the game, he realizes that not accepting that deal was perhaps the worst decision he ever made- but let's not forget that it was the collective west that persuaded him to 'keep on fighting' to regain Crimea and force the Ukrainian language down the throats of the Donbass republics.
That's right. He was cynically used. To "weaken Russia". As awful as Trump is, he is at least doing something which is actually in Ukraine's interests, for a change.
They keep doing it over and over: Vietnam, drag, Afghanistan, Central Europe in the 1990s. War hawks, neocons, liberal internationalists. Now er have a real-time example of how a more realist, non-interventionist approach would work and will work to stop the carnage. We should drum it into people's heads, make the neocons eat dirt, the internationalists confess their sins and turn the plowshares on the perpetual war-mongers. People are fed up. They want answers.
Complete utter nonsense for a once esteemed professor. Bullying, extorsion, taking the territories of other states by force and coercion. This is what felon Trump stands for. No decency watsoever, so ability to conduct diplomatic negotiations. US statecraft is now non-existent. All is the hands of a megalonaniac liar named Trump. Shameful.
I think the mainstream media has got you seeing white as black and black as white to some extent. Mearsheimer was predicting that Ukraine would get wrecked if the U.S. kept on leading it down the primrose path 10 years ago. As he himself has said, the results are tragic, but also quite predictable. Trump has his flaws, but wanting to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible is not one of them.
Ah, look...it's Neville Chamberlain here posting as "Scott".
Oh look it’s a USAID bot pushing more pathetic Hitler hysteria
Neville Chamberlain, the former British Prime Minister who died in 1940? In case that's who you're referring to, no, I'm not his ghost :-p.
Your response is absurd and utter nonsense. You just jumped on that old hate Trump bandwagon pushed by the democrats during his first and now his second administration. You voiced nothing of any significance other then hate and still are aligned with a malignant agenda that may bring about a nuclear war. When Biden came back from his trip to Russia, what did he say? In a one liner he spelled out his agenda, Putin has got to go. what exactly does the Dr before your name mean?
I essentially agree that Stephane's post was nonsense, but it's nonsense that's circulated widely in the mainstream media, so I thought it was easy to jump to those conclusions. Your last question got me to do a little digging though. The easiest part was clicking on Stephane's substack link and finding this: "Spent over 25 years in intelligence and research-related positions in Canada’s federal government. Widely published in the field of intelligence studies." From there, it was relatively easy to find the following articles from what I assume are the same Stephane: https://www.tandfonline.com/author/LEFEBVRE%2C+ST%C3%89PHANE
So looks like Stephane was in the Canadian intelligence community so long that they've begun to believe the lies that I believe the intelligence communities tend to feed the mainstream media when it comes to these types of subjects.
Hi, I just have a very bad feeling about the outcome of Zelensky's visit to the White House, and I think his casual, and boyish attire basically said I'm in no position to make such a big decision. During Biden's administration the president fully acknowledged Putin has got to go. It's no secret that the ongoing war in Ukraine is a proxy war used to bring Putin down no matter the loss of Ukrainian lives, or the destruction of Ukraine and the lives of it's people. In Trump's first term in office he was Putin's puppet, and it's interesting that the so called liberals of the democratic party are engaged in that kind of commentary once again, Here's Sander's making that point. https://kyivindependent.com/bernie-sanders-on-trumps-alignment-with-russia/ I use to be a registered democrat, but gave that alliance up in 2017, since I have a bad feeling they are going to go down the same road once again.
I’m Canadian Mexican, not American, but I definitely used to support the left in both Canada and the U.S. more before Covid. I think the left made some very bad decisions during Covid, which basically turned me against them on that. The same with their decisions on Ukraine. Trump certainly has his flaws, but trying to broker a peace deal with Russia on Ukraine as soon as possible isn’t one of them.
Today there is greater clarity on what happened, but yesterday was nothing but confusion as to why Zelensky did an about face. I never liked him, never trusted him, and always thought he was a self serving character. As an American you are indoctrinated with the belief that Russia is an existential threat and sooner or later it very well may bring about your demise. Interesting how hard we work to make that a possibility. The war In Ukraine is often referred to a proxy war, meaning were using Ukraine to do our dirty work, die by the hundreds of thousands for as long as necessary to bring down Russia. A neocon agenda which they have fully adopted. Now they scare me and I loathe them, and that came about due to their authoritarian and lying stance during the Trump years and it's starting all over again, and I have no doubt the democrats are behind the demise of this deal with Russia.
Lets just say I remain very suspicious as to what happened yesterday, and curious as to whether Zelensky was acting on his own or in complicity with certain NATO nations and the democrats as well. The democrats had a goal during the Ukraine war and that was to bring down Putin. They were strongly aligned with the neocons, Blinken was one of those as was Nuland. Bringing down Putin is very important in their desire for obtaining world wide hegemony for the US.
I haven't got time now, but thanks for the link and I'll look at that later.
Or they lie and DON'T believe ...
Yes, that's possible, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and so try to always assume that they really believe whatever it is they're saying.
"Dictator"
Well, you called me a dictator, so I guess that leaves the door open for me to call you a stupid ass.
You win, Mr. Donkeycrap! You asked about Dr. Stephane Lefebvre, "what exactly does the Dr before your name mean?". Too bad you don't recall what you wrote. Or are you one and the same?
Listen SaHIB don't play with your parent's computer.
Reblocked, amnesiac idiot. You've had your chances.
Hey Fran, why don't you stick your lickspittling of appeasers and rapists like Trump somewhere cozy?
You forgot to put "Rapist Supporter" before your own name...
Your childish hate and your obvious willingness to have adopted every lie told about Trump obscures your objectivity, so your perspective and your conclusions become meaningless.
Who can remember how the Russia / Ukraine War got started?
Trump blames the War on Ukraine and Zelenskyy, which is an outright lie.
It will be impossible to negotiate a lasting Peace based on this false premise.
(Who can remember how the Russia/Ukraine war got started?): I can. Zelensky was right to bring 2014 up, as I do believe that that's really when things started, during Euromaidan. What he -didn't- mention is who helped organize Euromaidan (the U.S.) or anything about who was responsible for the Euromaidan massacre (not Victor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian President at the time, who ended up fleeing the country in fear of his life). Some articles on these subjects:
https://off-guardian.org/2022/02/24/timeline-euromaidan-the-original-ukraine-crisis/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-hidden-truth-about-ukraine-italian-documentary-bombshell-evidence-kiev-euromaidan-snipers-kill-demonstrators/5619684
How about another psychopath bite the dust?
Whoa there buddy. Just because Fran agrees with Trump on his Ukraine foreign policy doesn't mean he supports rapists. As to your notion that Trump is trying to "appease" Russia, I think what his top priority is to come to a diplomatic solution that would be better than continuing the war. Which gives him a lot of leg room I think, as this war has been brutal for Ukrainians and, to a lesser extent, Russians.
Is this the pot calling the kettle black? Biden is a proved rapist; of his own daughter, even!
You, and your entire class, are delusional and this will be your downfall, as it is zelensky’s. The dem party and the blob desperately wanted this war. The results were predictable. The deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers are on their and your hands. None of this needed to happen. Just by observing Minsk 2 , Ukraine would still be whole , viable and the slaughter of conscripts would not have happened.
This ‘decency’ you refer it…unspeakable hypocrisy.
The dems/blob have overseen a holocaust in Palestine for Christ’s sake and worshipped the most sadistic war criminal of the century in congress. Trump is no better.
On Ukraine though, his reversal of policy will save the lives of conscripts. You find this deplorable. Why don’t you go to the front lines yourself and experience the reality? The answer : you would prefer that anonymous Slavic men do the dying , the suffering, for you . By the hundreds of thousands. It’s disgusting.
Why do you blame John Mearsheimer for this war? If that was a reply to another comment, cut and paste it where it properly belongs.
I believe he was responding to Dr. Stephane Lefebvre's post, not Mearsheimer's article.
Tell that to the one million+ mothers whose kids were led to slaughter by this freak,.
Point and splutter is no way to go through life.
Mearsheimer is not so wise, after all. I’m against US involvement in Ukraine, but this performance by Trump and Vance is political thuggery.
Angry that your USAID funding got terminated, Dr Lefebvre ?
What many often forget is that the Maidan was a NATO engineered “colour revolution” meant to upset the balance of power in the region. Zelenskyy had been bombing villages out prior to the Russian invasion and was goaded by the Obama and then the Biden administration into war.
Russia isn’t not guilty of invading, but the situation is more complex than your childish brain seems to be able to handle.
Trump is rightfully telling Zelenskyy to stop letting Ukrainians get slaughtered.
You are mistaken. It is a reply to the first comment. Pretty easy to see that. I respect mearsheimer and agree with him here.
How does John Mearsheimer attract so many psychopaths?
US "statecraft" had come to an end quite a while ago. Trump is just a louder exponent for that. The "felon" nonsense is just descriptive of where you are coming from. Else, you are right.
Ironically, I think that in this particular case, Trump is actually doing what's best not just for the U.S., but for Ukraine as well. I suspect the only people who benefit from this war continuing are those getting rich off of arms sales.
You have it backwards actually. The purpose of statecraft is to achieve diplomatic goals for your country, not another. The US is not beholden to Zelenskyy; the guy can’t tell them where all the money he has gotten has gone. He’s just a typical jewish conman.
Magnanimous to say to the disrespectful guy “come back when ready for peace!”
I just saw the whole exchange and two times before the conversation deteriorated Zelenski was going against Trump with emphasizing guarantees because “an agreement doesn’t work” and another time again contradicted Trump as he was lamenting young soldiers dying. Zelenskyy interrupted by saying that what the president was saying is disinformation because “our people are going to school in the front lines and … we have beautiful cities”. In both of these cases Trump didn’t respond which I think was incredible self restraint. Interesting it was when JDVance started talking about the president of diplomacy in contrast with the Biden of posturing while Putin shot bullets. It was then that Zelenskyy lost it and started going after Vance and accusing him of being loud which was the end of Trump’s restraint. Vance had already reminded Zelenskyy to be respectful but Trump had to say it again to a man who was speaking over the president of the US in his White House. Trump said it well, “without changing the attitude there was no deal”. And he called it quits. God have mercy!
Right and he shows up dressed like you might to go to the mall! How disrespectful. We've provided them hundreds of billions in defense and he has no gratitude for it. Just expects it to be endless. Well no. If we pay then we decide. If he wants to be in charge of how Putin is dealt with then he can do it without our support. Sure Putin could break a cease fire, any deal carries risks like that.
They are just so unrealistic. Russia is winning on the battlefield and there's no hope to reverse that situation. So the only realistic path forward is to cut your losses and make peace.
No one, including Mearsheimer, questions whether Zelensky determined on his own to behave in this antagonistic, disrespectful manner which he introduced by wearing casual and inappropriate dress. Did he behave in a disrespectful, and challenging manner on his own, or was he operating in complicity with others who do not want a good relationship with Russia? No doubt it's something that I thought about immediately, because when it came to Russia the democrats made a concerted effort during Trump's previous administration to turn him into Putin's puppet. They sabotaged his trip to Russia, and further sabotaged any effort he made to get along with Russia, including pushing the lie of Russia-gate. This is something that should be considered. The democrats backed by the neocons whose agenda the Biden administration adopted may still have their hand in this game and if anything they want to bring Russia down, and their whole political ideology it's at odds with what Trump wants to do.
Actually, when I go to the mall (or grocery shopping), I usually wear a jacket and tie . . .
Wow, that's classy. Kinda like how people used to dress for baseball games way back when?
Jeff Rense' observation?
Who is that
Well, I am somewhat eccentric. I actually started wearing a jacket and tie when I was in college in about 1982, just to be different!
Sorry, the rest of us "disrespect" supporters of dictators like Putin, just as we "disrespect" racists and rapists....such as Trump.
Obviously you have different standards.
How is Putin a dictator? He was elected to his post and derives his authority from the Duma legislators.
If anyone is a dictator it’s Zelensky.
The main thing here really isn't Trump or Putin but the Ukrainian people. Continuing this war will only harm Ukraine and its people more. As others have said, Trump may not be trying to end this war for the Ukrainian people, but it would still be best for the Ukrainian people if this war could be brought to an end as quickly as possible.
You really can't distinguish Joe Biden and Donald Trump?
Yeah, I think you got it there. Trump is a vulgar and horrible boor, and a bully. But this thing was done by Zelensky, who was way, way out of his depth. He not only didn't read the room, he didn't consider the nature of the meeting. It was not a negotiation and not a debate -- it was a presser, a TV show, smiles and blather before the signing ceremony. Trump was uncharacteristically gracious at the beginning, but Zelensky was going for him almost from the get-go. Trump: "We are going to end this war" Z: "Thank you for agreeing to stop Putin." And hammered on and on, not listening to what Trump was saying at all.
Zelensky could have tried -- despite indeed not holding any cards -- to have that debate with Trump, BUT NOT AT A PRESSER IN FRONT OF TV CAMERAS.
I've never seen a world leader screw the pooch like that. My head is still spinning.
Now he needs to resign. He has too much baggage to deal with the reality now. Zaluzhny would be the guy needed at this moment.
I like Zelensky. He's intelligent and witty. The best line of the whole awful meeting was when Trump said "Without us, you would have lost in two weeks" Zelensky: "Three days! We already heard that from Putin." LOL! And Trump was wrong -- the U.S. was doing nothing during the first two weeks -- the Ukrainians did that all that by themselves.
But Zelensky's day is done, and Trump is right that the war needs to be ended NOW. Every day which goes by will be worse for Ukraine.
Stoned crackhead obstinacy.
Talks were useful in that Trump team brought some inconvenient truths into the light for the western MSM audience. No substance was really possible though - not yet. Trump admin still hasn't finished consolidating power (and who knows, they might not). When they do, they can make some promises that last until the midterm elections, maybe until 2028. They can't credibly promise the one thing Russia wants, which is to neutralize Ukraine as a future proxy agent for western expansionism. Re-establishing diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow should be considered a win at this point. Ukraine and anyone pretending to care about them should press for ending the war ASAP. With a minimum of decency, this should also include eliminating the Bandera nationalist element in Ukraine, which both Trump's first admin, Biden, and Europeans supported without shame.
Frightening the lack of ability of the host to defuse the situation. Zelensky probably felt quite uncomfortable about the sellout demanded from him. From all viewpoints, Zelensky and Ukraine would be far better off by cutting out the middlemen and talk to Russia directly. Arguably, the Maidan was a huge mistake. The Maidan was, as we may remember, about associating with the EU, which for one came to naught and secondly was against the will of most Ukrainians, albeit by a small margin.
Kiev International Institute of Sociology, November 2013:
"Which way Ukraine should go - which union should join? (population preferences for two weeks before the Vilnius summit)"
https://kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=204&page=2
(use the Google translate function)
The finer points of diplomacy are not Trump and Vance's strong suit, but they are at least being real with Zelensky instead of whispering sweet nothings into his ear while Ukrainians die by the hundreds of thousands. As I think Mearsheimer has basically implied, the best thing for Ukraine is to get back to negotiating a peace deal with Russia as soon as possible.
Zelensky has shown no intention to talk to Russia.
There was a time when he was talking to Russia, near the start of the war. Alas, the west persuaded him to ditch those peace talks and "keep on fighting". Here's to hoping that Zelensky and any other would be American henchmen countries learn a lesson that Jeffrey Sachs pointed out in a speech he gave to the European Union, with a slight modification from me: being an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but being a friend can be fatal. It all depends on how close you -really- are to the U.S. Sadly, Ukraine was always just a pawn to the U.S. and the new U.S. administration has decided that it has outlived its usefulness. The ironic thing is that trying to end this war is actually the best thing for Ukraine as well, as Mearsheimer has said. Hopefully Zelensky, or whoever replaces him if he's replaced, comes to realize this sooner rather than later.
He even prohibited negotiations with Russia. It shows that he should have stuck with acting. I said what he should do, not what he would do. A competent leader would have recognized by now, that he himself his country were used by the US and draw the conclusions. The west is neither willing nor able to continue to finance Ukraine. Accepting the sellout suggested by Trump (it is not just about rare earths, but also lots of other stuff including refineries, agricultural land being bought up by BlackRock, etc.) will condemn the bled-out country to eternal poverty. As Prof Mearsheimer might say, "the primrose path has come to its end".
Certainly Trump did nothing whatever to ease the situation. Zelensky on his part actively made it worse. Both are conmen, perhaps at different times. Zelensky, when he was elected, was elected on a platform of negotiation with Russia. Which he promptly abandoned. At least Trump, on this topic at this time, is doing the right thing even if for the wrong reason (I think he's saving it for Iran, contra Mearsheimer)
I think Trump is more interested in China than Iran, but I support the basic sentiment that Trump is doing the right here, even if it's just so that he can pivot to another country. In the case of the Ukraine war, I also think that Trump really is concerned that escalating things with Russia could lead to "World War III" as he put it in his tussle with Zelensky. I think he's right on that too.
I understand the need to make a deal as the situation in Ukraine is sadly not going well for them. But since the Americans are so powerful and they have all the cards, as they claim, and good for them, I dont think there is a need to treat a President of another country this badly and bully him like that. He is already down, why try to humiliate him on top of that?
The stance of JD Vance was an eye opener. I had hopes for him but I am now shocked and greatly disappointed. Who says "your propaganda tours" to a visiting politician?!! Would he dare utter this phrase to Putin's face? No.
And why is he so bent on "being grateful" and kept repeating that? Zelenskyy has said multiple times that he is thankful to the Americans, but that is not what is important here. Vance's obsession with that was shocking and immature. The guy is fighting for his country and not only do you want him to agree on something very devastating to him (which fair enough, might be neccessary), but you also want him to do it with a smile and to kiss your ass while doing it.
If politics was just about scolding people you dont agree with, then everyone would be a politician. The reason we vote for other people to do this job is that we recognise that there are some people with better communication and diplomacy skills. But these people it seems have none of that!
I don't think that Trump and Vance were bullying Zelensky, I think they were just trying to point out the reality of the situation. I remember someone saying that a close Zelensky advisor saying that Zelensky had essentially started to believe all the fantasy bs that the western mainstream media is always telling the population. Trump and Vance may not be the most diplomatic, but they provided a much needed reality check.
The reality check is that, powers who once supported you, and actually put you in this mess in the first place, can just like that stop supporting you, blame you for everything and ask you, on live TV to be grateful on top of that.
That's true. But I think it should be said that the Biden Administration is not the Trump Administration. True, the U.S. started arming Ukraine during the first Trump Administration, but I -suspect- that Trump would have engaged in diplomacy had he been President when Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. The Biden Administration, being the Biden Administration, engaged in next to no diplomacy and actually -encouraged- Ukraine to keep on fighting when Russia proposed a very reasonable peace deal during the first few weeks of Russia's military operation/war in Ukraine. A good article on that can be seen here: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ukraine-russia-war-peace-diplomacy/
Yes, but as Mearsheimer has said many times, it has started much earlier than that, with the West and mostly US trying to make them join NATO (and the EU). I dont care what party it was. That used to be the American foreign policy. US is greatly responsible for this situation. Vance demanding "thank you" is ironic, when they (as representatives of the US State) should be apologizing for this mess.
With your logic, every country's responsibility about anything only lasts for the one term of their president. Should then agreements, treaties and responsibilities only be honoured for one term? I am not saying that just because Biden encouraged the war that Trump should continue it. But the responsibility of the US in this mess does not magically disappear every time a new president is elected. Trump is changing US policy without recognizing that US had had a big fault in this mess, and he is blaming Ukraine for everything and treating him like a pariah.
Well, as I've said elsewhere, Trump's diplomatic skills could use some work, but I do distinctly remember him trying to point out that he wasn't President when the dumbest decisions were made, including when the west encouraged Zelensky to squander the best peace deal that Ukraine was going to get a few weeks into the war.
Again, are you saying a country's responsibilities get reset every time a new president is elected? And a country NEVER has any responsibility, and only their presidents have? Does this mean for example that when Hitler died, Germany did not have any responsibility for WW2 anymore? It does not work like that!
The US have dragged Ukraine in this mess. It does not matter who the president was that pushed Ukraine to become a NATO member. Trump and Vance represent the US and NOT themselves. So AT LEAST they could talk to him in a decent manner, since they represent the country who brought him to this mess. That is all I am saying.
I thought Boris Clownston did that.
I love your work John, I wish I had discovered you 10 years ago.
Great dialogue :-)
This was scripted by Putin. Tass news was right there to film it for Russian TV. Yes I agree that Zelenskyy has no cards left and Ukraine will have to cede territory. But what Russia doesn't understand that is that it's setting up a European version of Afghanistan for it self. So Zelenskyy will likely have to capitulate but many Ukrainians will not. This will become a smoldering peace and will drag on and on. For this "victory" Russia will have to accept decades of gurrila warfare and massive losses of people and treasure.
So Meirsheimer and Sachs are right to point out that this is the only outcome now but I almost guarantee that many Ukrainians will concede now too but start the resistance later.
You may be right, but I'm hoping that a real lasting peace happens. For that to happen, I think that Ukrainians need to examine the roots of this conflict, which go back to 2014.
I stand with Ukraine. Not because I think this war is anything Ukraine has wanted or needed (whatever that might mean). I think Russia’s war is the fault of the United States by disregarding the fears and worries of Russia. Our expansion of NATO has created an existential fear response by Putin since 2007. Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine since 2014 has been destabilizing and, since 2022, catastrophic for the people of Ukraine and Russia. We should have been capable to prevent this and have failed. The cost? Hundreds of thousands dead. The United States needs to own this and balance an end that reflects the concerns and price paid on both sides. Are you for the people or power over the people?
I completely agree with you that Russia's military operation into Ukraine was provoked by the U.S. and its NATO allies. I don't think that Putin engaged in a 'war of aggression'. I think that for 8 years, between 2014 and 2022, he tried to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war raging in Ukraine. It was only after these 8 years had passed and the Ukrainian military was once again pounding on the eastern Ukrainian rebel regions of Luhansk and Donetsk that Putin decided that the only way the situation would be resolved is if Russia stepped in militarily. To date, I have only seen one good article that gets into the critical days prior to Russia's military operation, an article from former Swiss Intelligence Officer Jacques Baud. It can be seen here:
https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/09/former-nato-military-analyst-blows-the-whistle-on-wests-ukraine-invasion-narrative/
No one paying attention to the issues related to Russia, Ukraine and plethora of instigator provocateurs of NATO western influences should really be surprised. Two things I'll note though is that all the rhetoric previously stated by Russians Putin and Laveroc regarding the Ukrainian Elynsky have been proven. And those who have the mental hate disability 'TDS' throughout mass media access have invariably revealed their hand, (sticking to the mention of cards by POTUS...lol).🤣
The Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy was supposed to be a PR gesture to preclude his signature on Ukraine’s surrender to Russia and debt agreement with the US. A slight diversion happened:
In front of the cameras, the collaborator blamed the defeat on the master for abandoning them. Understandably, he wants his people not to cut off his head for signing a surrender, which would confirm it was all a hopeless situation that the Ukrainians will be paying for a long time. He’s preparing them for the inevitable while trying to save his skin.
I think Zelensky's biggest mistake is that he can't see how his own actions contributed to where Ukraine is now. He can ofcourse blame the Biden Administration and other western officials for encouraging him to continue fighting with Russia instead of making a deal early on, and for lying to him when they said that they'd be there "for as long as it takes", but Trump wasn't in power then. I think what's happening is that Zelensky is at last facing the cold hard truth that his country was always just a pawn to the western elites and Trump had come to the conclusion that his usefulness was just about up. He apparently tried to hold Trump's interest by promising a chunk of Ukraine's wealth, but all it really got him was a meeting with Trump to sign the deal and since he didn't even sign it, I doubt that Trump will want to see him again any time soon. Perhaps he'd see him again -after- he signs a peace deal with Russia and even then, I suspect that the Trump Administration would want an apology for his behaviour as well.
I agree with you that Zelenskyy helped get his country into its awful current position; that's on him despite Biden and EU promises, it's totally reckless. He even seems to believe he’s entitled to demand security guarantees. Biden spoiled him for sure. So far, the drama at the Oval Office has worked domestically for Zelenskyy. “He fought like a lion,” they say. In the long run, though, I don’t think Ukrainian Ultra-Nationalists will forgive him so easily.
As for Trump, he already said: “he can come back when he’s ready for peace”. Zelenskyy is still lucky despite having no leverage.
Now that Zelenski has seriously “pissed his own cheerios” (in the White House, no less!) his best move might be to publicly admit he has a drug abuse problem, immediately step down as ‘fearless leader’ of Ukraine and pray for forgiveness and sympathy from firstly his fellow Ukrainians and secondly from his international ‘partners’. I’m not a betting man but I’d hazard a guess that the odds of that happening are pretty slim. We live in ‘interesting times’
I think Zelensky has a right to be mad, he's just blaming the wrong person. I think at some point Trump even tried to point this out to some extent. It was the Biden Administration and his European "allies" that encouraged him to keep on fighting when Russia offered a very reasonable peace deal a few weeks into the war. I -hope- that at this late stage in the game, he realizes that not accepting that deal was perhaps the worst decision he ever made- but let's not forget that it was the collective west that persuaded him to 'keep on fighting' to regain Crimea and force the Ukrainian language down the throats of the Donbass republics.
That's right. He was cynically used. To "weaken Russia". As awful as Trump is, he is at least doing something which is actually in Ukraine's interests, for a change.
They never planned on a deal. How it’s Putins land now? 30vs 1 public meeting with the person who was invaded and a secret meeting with the aggressor.
They keep doing it over and over: Vietnam, drag, Afghanistan, Central Europe in the 1990s. War hawks, neocons, liberal internationalists. Now er have a real-time example of how a more realist, non-interventionist approach would work and will work to stop the carnage. We should drum it into people's heads, make the neocons eat dirt, the internationalists confess their sins and turn the plowshares on the perpetual war-mongers. People are fed up. They want answers.
we appear to be at the end of that fabled primrose path, eh Doc
Hitler also thought he was winning!