The Fight in Ukraine and its Heroes

[KE Spider]

Careful parsing of that report, can read what you choose from it. Overall, fairly balanced.

Trump, being Trump, overstates (lies about) his case, but for a European war the Continental countries should be overwhelmingly the largest contributors. They are not.

The point is very simple, WWII ended in 1945. It is no longer USA's responsibility to defend those who are capable of defending themselves and that have chiseled us for decades on defense spending.

Pony up, take care of yourselves, we have your back, but the largess is over and it should be. NATO survives, but Europeans need to pull up their big boy defense pants.

 

[urfan1]

Poinnt is the Europeans are doing just what you demand, give them credit.

 

[KE Spider]

'The United States is slightly ahead of the EU in providing military assistance, and the EU is slightly ahead of the United States in providing financial assistance. At the same time, almost 90% of financial assistance from EU institutions has been provided in the form of loans, albeit on very generous terms, and approximately 60% of U.S. financial assistance is provided in the form of grants."

"The publication notes that the largest European economies can do much more, as the annual commitments of Germany and Britain, together with the United States, amount to only 0.2% of their GDP."

Applaud the Europeans contributions, but submit not close to where it should be given it is a Eastern European war.

 

[Long Time Spider Fan]

The US, along with Russia, refused to vote today for a UN resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sickening. Trump's adoration of Putin continues. Republicans truly have become the party of Putin.

 

[Eight Legger]

Trump had the nerve to insult the French president in the White House twice today during a press session, first by lying and saying that European countries were just loaning money to Ukraine but would get it back, and then (after Macron corrected him and said they had unconditionally given money to Ukraine) telling "Well you can believe that if you want to" and rolling his eyes.

A pathetic human being.

 

[Section 204and5]

Trump had the nerve to insult the French president in the White House twice today during a press session, first by lying and saying that European countries were just loaning money to Ukraine but would get it back, and then (after Macron corrected him and said they had unconditionally given money to Ukraine) telling "Well you can believe that if you want to" and rolling his eyes.

A pathetic human being.

Eight - pathetic human being is IMO a huge understatement. I personally think he is one of the top five worst human beings on the planet (Putin gets my top spot). I'm sure others think that equates to Trump Derangement Syndrome, but I'm pretty sure I could debate and win that argument.

 

[Eight Legger]

You're not wrong. Who else in history could lie about everything constantly, make blatantly offensive and dangerous decisions daily, attempt to overthrow the government of the nation he was elected to lead and then, when people dare to call him out for those things, manage to convince his sheep that he's being unfairly targeted by people who are simply out to get him. It's theater of the absurd and deranged. Millions of people who know better have fallen for it. It's a pathetic indictment on the absolute stupidity of our nation.

And to justify all of that, I'm sure someone will now chime in about three people dying in Benghazi as if Hillary herself executed them.

 

[Wood Hall]

Hey, we're voting on the same side as North Korea and Russia at the United Nations. What a great peer group.

 

[Gallipoli]

Russia has achieved a political breakthrough, curtesy of President Trump. Russia's fortunes have improved dramatically.

"Russia has achieved perhaps the most stunning breakthrough of the war. It just wasn’t on the battlefield.

The initial comments by Trump early after his inauguration gave some hope that he would put pressure on Russia’s Putin to end his war against Ukraine....

The past two weeks have seen a shocking turn of events in European and Ukrainian security affairs. A disdain for Ukraine and President Zelenskyy, and lack of support for the defence of Ukraine, was telegraphed by Trump, Vance and others during the lead up to the U.S. presidential elections....


As it turns out, this was a false hope. The past week has seen a return to the pre-election posture by the Trump administration that favours the Russian narrative for the war. As I noted in my most recent weekly update, we have seen the following events:

• Last Tuesday, President Trump doubled down on his personal war with President Zelenskyy calling him a poor negotiator and grossly incompetent.
• Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war, stating that “You should have ended it — three years. You should have never been there. You should have never started it.”
• Trump called for elections in Ukraine. “We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine — I mean I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating.”
• The U.S. continued pushing Ukraine to sign an extraordinarily one-sided deal on rare earths.
• In arguments over a G7 communique, the U.S. wanted reference to Russia as an aggressor removed.
• Trump accused the UK and France of “not doing anything” to end the war in Ukraine.
• During the week, Zelenskyy stated he was not going to sign a deal that obligated Ukraine to pay the U.S. ten times the amount of aid provided to Ukraine, and which would impoverish future generations of Ukrainians. A deal appears to have been struck that does not include the most extortionate claims from Trump.
• U.S. Secretary of State Rubio described how he wished to work on economic collaboration between the U.S. and Russia
• The U.S. pressured Ukraine to tone down its UN resolution for 24 February 2025 about the Russian invasions of Ukraine.
• Yesterday, the U.S. sided with Russia on two UN resolutions. The first was a a European-drafted resolution condemning Moscow's actions and supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity. The second was a US-drafted resolution calling for an end to the war but with no criticism of Russia.

The culmination of these events, and Russian posturing over the last decade, is a major political breakthough by Russia. To paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (just in case of you don’t know who Obi Wan is), this isn’t the breakthrough we were looking for.
Mick Ryan through his Substack Account

 

[urfan1]

Trump loves Putin, or Putin has something on Trump.

 

[Eight Legger]

Both. Russia covered his debts. He sold his soul for a buck. Joke's on them, I guess, since he doesn't have one.