I give, and we all should give, President Trump an immense amount of credit and praise for genuinely trying to end conflicts and wars around the world. The President genuinely is distressed by what he sees as the waste of human life and the destruction of societies. As a developer he knows the value of buildings and infrastructure in improving living standards. He knows that war does the opposite; it wreaks havoc on what is needed for a good life. The goal of having peace and good relations between countries should mean not only that conflicts end but that more can be spent on better housing, better food and water sources, better education, more jobs, more trade between countries.
So the objective and the efforts are entirely laudable. The danger is in not recognizing that there are individual leaders of countries and there are groups that are eager for war, that believe in conquest to enhance their own egos and their national or group pride. These leaders and groups don’t care about humanity, don’t care who gets killed or hurt, don’t care what is destroyed. Putin is one of these leaders. He is obviously a delusional barbarian. These people are devious, manipulative, completely untrustworthy, as is Putin. They are influenced by nothing other than their own delusional thoughts, and surround themselves with those who reinforce those thoughts.
You cannot negotiate with such a leader and believe you will get any lasting resolution; they will merely use any period of peace to build up forces for another assault on whatever target they have chosen. President Trump appears to have gained a greater appreciation for Putin’s nature over the last few months and one would hope that he understands that any resolution to the Ukraine war, which was launched in an unprovoked manner by Putin, would have the strongest measures in place to assure that it is not resumed.
I believe it is a horrific error to cede any Ukrainian territory to Russia; that is obviously rewarding aggression and barbarism. In many ways I think it would be preferable to give Ukraine everything it needs to defeat and push the Russians back. But finding some temporary resolution which stops the fighting and leaves open the possibility that Ukraine’s borders, which were originally set by Russia through the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, are restored. I would not in any manner relent on sanctions against the country until it pays full reparations to Ukraine and returns all the stolen Ukrainian children.
We all want peace, the amount of damage war does to us all is horrific. But a false peace that doesn’t eliminate the threat posed by those who love and start conflict will only bring worse consequences in the future.
