It appears that Trump — or the people around him, since Trump in a deeply stupid man who has no ability to conceive a strategic vision — is aiming for the return of the pre-World War II Great Powers politics in which the strong carved up the weak. Perhaps he or his minions conceive a grand alliance of the U.S., Russia and China to bring the rest of the world to heel. Most probably, Trump intends to finish the job he started on Jan. 6, 2021, of overthrowing the government and annulling the constitution, canceling election, and declaring himself dictator for life, to be succeeded by one of his slimeball sons. In all of this he might well succeed. It beggars belief that he was not immediately prosecuted after Jan. 6.
In any case, perhaps a breakup of the world order that has lasted, more or less with stability, for eighty years was to be expected at some point anyway. International arrangements are rarely stable for that long. Those who support Trump and Putin and favor the destruction of Ukraine are beneath contempt, and I suggest no longer responding to such people on this board.
Trump probably sees himself as a kind of Mussolini. It doesn't tale a psychologist to see he has some ind of inferiority complex.
He is in his heaven, he hob knobs with the likes of Putin, therefore he is a great leader. e is a global leader negotiating ends to wars. Wielding tariffs on a whim. Theatening to take the Panama Canal and Greenland.
It is the run up to WWII.
But Putin has shown himself to be such a loser these last three years. Why would Trump want to [hobnob] with him?
The problem with the statement in bold is it is beyond dispute Putin has in the last three years shown the condition of his military and more broadly his government is a mess. It has been largely a paperwork shuffle of everyone stating everything is going well under the leadership of Putin. We've all seen what a mess the Russian military is, corrupt their defense industry is, and dependent upon western trade for electronics and advanced machinery. I called this a meat grinder since the early months of the war and it has shown itself to be just that. Russia's military is in terrible shape. That it can currently outproduce Ukraine and throw more warm bodies at the problem is what keeps it grinding ahead in this war.
In short, in the eyes of an individual like Trump, Putin should appear to be a loser and I have to ask why Trump would still hold him in any regard today. Trump could have taken a firmer stance here, looked like Superman protecting Ukraine, threatened Russian ocean going oil exports, authorized covert attacks within areas of Ukraine seized by Russia. Consider, what would it take to scare away Russia's shadow fleet of oil tankers? These are not patriotic Russians transporting this oil.
Shorter still, why hasn't Trump cast Putin aside? After all, it is what he does. He uses people to their end usefulness and then discards them. Why not Putin?
USA has given much more overall.
Given that Europe has given more to Ukraine than the US, what do you mean by this statement??
On scale, I would doubt Europe has the stockpiles. The US sometimes gives from current stock and sometimes by authorizing the defense industry to produce more for Ukraine. I think Europe's ability to continue to give what they have and even more would dry up fairly quickly. There would be great holes in Ukraine getting the variety of equipment/weapons it needs.
The hump Europe has to get over is they need to
commit funds to their defense industry to produce more. Their defense companies cannot put on another shift of workers or build more manufacturing capacity in hopes that the government money will come.
And while it was nice to see EU leaders get together to rally support behind Ukraine, I heard nothing of real substance. GB basically said, we will if you will, coalition of the willing and all that jazz. Said they will commit 5,000 missiles to Ukraine's defence. Over what period of time, I wonder. Do they have 5,000 missiles? That would be swell. Will Germany, now that they have this proEU conservative in office. Merz still has to put together a government, I believe. What promises will need to be made first? And France. What of France? Do the French people even know what a sense of urgency is? Poland? Tusk will try and persuade Trump. While Trump is quite malleable, Vance is another story. I don't like Vance. Vance is a dick with a brain and he's in Trump's ear, so to speak.
