Has Trump learnt anything From His deal with the Taliban in 2020 ?

 

  Uproar in Europe

A former top general in NATO slammed the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine. In the latest episode of the BBC’s “Ukrainecast,” posted Tuesday, a former deputy Supreme Allied Commander, British Gen. Richard Shirreff, talked about the administration’s recent efforts to forge some sort of end to Russia’s Ukraine invasion—without anyone from Kyiv at the negotiating table.



“A failure to understand what Russia is about.” Shirreff said recent public statements in the U.S. and Europe by President Trump, SecDef Hegseth, State Secretary Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance display no recognition that “what Russia is about is removing Ukraine from the map as a sovereign state, about incorporating Ukraine, either physically annexing it in terms of the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, and installing a puppet government in Kiev, so Ukraine becomes a sort of client state rather like Belarus. Because that’s deep in the Russian DNA. And I think any American negotiator who doesn’t understand that and thinks there can be a durable, lasting solution with a sovereign Ukraine, and that Russia will accept that, is deluding themselves,” the general said.

Shirreff continued: “What does this all mean for Europe later and the rest of the Western alliance? Well, what it means after last week’s pronouncements in Munich, firstly Trump’s announcement that he’d had the 90-minute call with Putin, that he was setting up peace talks over the heads of the Ukrainian government, and then we heard Hegseth and Vance’s pretty strident words. What this means is the Pax Americana is finished, that America has effectively abdicated its leadership of the free world because with leadership comes the responsibilities…”

In terms of a precedent for Trump seeking a Ukraine peace deal without Ukraine, consider this, said Shirreff: “Trump did the deal with the Taliban in 2020, over the head of the Afghan government, which resulted in the complete collapse of the NATO mission in August 2022.”

Host: “So maybe he’s learned from that?”

Shirreff: “I think it’s highly unlikely. And the second point I’d make is that I don’t believe Trump has any understanding of the real nature of Russia. And he’s kidding himself if he believes that he, the master of the deal, can sort this one out. The only way, the only way there will be peace long term, in Ukraine, in Europe and against a revanchist Russia determined to rebuild another Russian empire is through a strong NATO deterrent presence from the Baltic to the Black Sea, incorporating Ukraine as a NATO member, which requires every NATO member, America included, to lean in and as a start, put together a strategy to support the Ukrainians in defeating Russia, because that’s the only way Russia is going to be stopped. Anything less than that, which is what we’re seeing now in spade loads, is merely starting the unravelling of European security, which could so easily end in catastrophe…

The outlook for Ukraine is now exceedingly dismal, said the general. “If Russia gets a bloody nose and finally realises it is not going to succeed, then there is a possibility of a durable and lasting peace. But as I said earlier, only if Ukraine is properly backed up by a strong NATO, with America 100% behind it, and as we’ve heard, that is not going to happen.”

Recall that Trump’s officials offered Ukraine a bold and apparently one-sided plan that would have given the U.S. access to half of the revenue from extracting Ukraine’s minerals “in perpetuity.” Trump suggested that could net as much as $500 billion, though it’s unclear how he arrived at that figure, which economist Paul Krugman said “seems like a wildly exaggerated sum.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymir Zelenskyy rejected the plan. “Some observers have compared the Trump proposal to the reparations the victorious allies demanded from Germany after World War I,” Krugman wrote this week.

“Trump’s vision reminds me more of old-fashioned imperialism, in which powerful nations tried to seize the wealth of less-powerful nations just because they could,” said Krugman. “This doesn’t look to me like Weimar Germany in the 1920s; it looks like the Belgian Congo in the late 19th century, a personal possession of King Leopold which he brutally exploited for its rubber and ivory.”

“Trying to carry out that kind of exploitation in the 21st century, in a nation that, once again, has been fighting for our freedom, is just depraved,” Krugman wrote, and added, “it seems almost inappropriate to point out that it’s also deeply stupid.” That’s because it seems highly unlikely the U.S. could ever actually access those magical funds that for Trump add up to $500 billion. “If Ukraine were to lose, and Putin takes over, he wouldn’t honor the deal,” Krugman predicted. “If Ukraine were to survive, its populace would be even more enraged than the Germans after World War I, and they wouldn’t pay either,” he added.

But perhaps more notably, “The price of this depravity would be to mark America irrevocably as a rogue nation, one nobody will want to deal with and nobody will trust to honor its promises,” said Krugman.

Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy again on Wednesday, describing him on social media as “A Dictator without Elections” who had “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

Several European leaders rushed to Zelenskyy’s defense, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said “it is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy.” He added, “The fact that regular elections cannot be held in the middle of a war is in line with the requirements of the Ukrainian constitution and electoral laws. No one should claim otherwise.” British and Swedish leaders spoke similarly in Zelenskyy’s defense on Wednesday.

Germany’s top diplomat said, “If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Worth noting: European VIPs inbound to WH. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are scheduled to visit Trump at the White House early next week to discuss Ukraine and Russia.

Even Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence objected to Trump, asserting in a clarification Wednesday on social media, “Mr President, Ukraine did not 'start' this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Trump’s former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley objected to Trump as well, writing on social media Wednesday that Trump said “Exactly what Putin wants” when he alleged Zelenskyy started the Ukraine invasion, which Haley called, “classic Russian talking points.”