And again, I mean, it’s – every time you see this in the headlines and people die, it reminds you of why the President wants this war to end. As he has said from the beginning, his number one interest here is to stop people from dying and the destruction that’s ongoing every single day. They’re going to be having a conference – maybe it starts today, if I’m not mistaken – about reconstruction and the rebuilding of Ukraine. Every time one of these strikes is launched, the price of reconstruction goes up, right? There’s also the destruction of the country’s capabilities, the country’s economic capabilities, that has to be added to this.
But obviously the loss of life is something of grave interest – of great interest to the President. It’s important to note that since January of this year, as an example just to give you, on the Russian side, they’ve lost 100,000 soldiers – dead – not injured – dead. And on the Ukrainian side, the numbers are less but still very significant. And so that’s – the President doesn’t like wars. He thinks wars are a waste of money and a waste of lives, and he wants them to end. And he’s going to do everything he can within his power to end this war and any other war he has a chance to end, as you’ve seen in the past.
And so, we’re going to continue to work at it. We understand that these things take time and patience, but obviously we’re also frustrated that more progress has not been made. And hopefully, based on today and in the days to come, we’ll have more clarity about what exactly the Russian position and priorities are in this regard, and can begin to make some progress. But it’s been difficult, as you’ve seen.
Let's give Trump and Rubio the benefit of the doubt here and say they really want to end this war. Maybe they're worried about loss of life, maybe they're worried about lost opportunities to make money in Russia. I don't really care.
But I do believe, as I have written here many times, that it will be very hard to get Putin to give up his maximal goals in Ukraine. He considers Ukraine a rebellious province and wants to conquer it, plain and simple. Apparently Trump has signaled that he may well accept the latest sanctions bill to come from the Senate, so long as there is a clause allowing him to suspend it. Perhaps he hopes to threaten Putin with this.
But more sanctions will not move Putin. The deaths of a few hundred thousand more soldiers will not matter to him. The only things that might, I think, would be serious battlefield defeats or a real collapse of the Russian economy. I think both are unlikely to happen this year.
So I think Trump is wasting his time trying to reach a deal.
3 comments:
Of course Trump is wasting his time. He's wasting everyone's time. It's not about the outcome - it's entirely about his ego. He would do anything, and accept any outcome, that would make him feel big and important and beloved.
If he thought that cutting all aid and letting Ukraine be annexed would earn him admiration and aplomb, he'd do it in a heartbeat. Likewise, if he thought that dropping bombs on Russia like he did in Iran would earn him glowing praise and universal acclaim, he'd leap at the chance.
He is not a complicated creature, and it is not hard to predict his actions, if only you know what he imagines he stands to personally gain from any given action. He will never intentionally choose to benefit others over himself. He will never make any personal sacrifice. He will never knowingly risk his public perception to uphold some principle. He will always make whatever choice seems (to him) likeliest to earn him praise - even when his own expectations and reality couldn't be further apart. He will gladly take the most disastrous actions, including ones that make him look like an idiot, just so long as he merely thinks they'll make him look good.
We're just lucky that he has enough cognizance to understand that rolling over and letting Putin conquer Ukraine could only ever earn him scorn.
"will never intentionally choose to benefit others over himself. He will never make any personal sacrifice. He will never knowingly risk his public perception to uphold some principle. " Did Biden ? Did Obama ? Did Clinton? What are you demanding from a President , be Jesus Christ? Trump is NOT predictable, follows NO rules, can NOT be trusted, is faithful to NO alliance. End of the story.
So, the president who swore he would end forever wars is about to make the Ukraine war a forever war. So predictable. So trustworthy. Just another example of how no matter who we vote for we get John McCain or Lindsey Graham. Graham must be having another one of his public orgasms; he's getting his sanctions, sanctions that look like they are designed to hurt the U.S. middle class. Just another politician more worried about his legacy than all the dying soldiers and civilians he says he's concerned about.
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