LOS AGNEELS.–Turkey’s 70-year-old authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries to play all sides against the middle, serving as NATO southern flank and, at the same time, trying to preserve relations with the Kremlin. Erdogan’s right showing concern about NATO getting into a military altercation with the Kremlin, since they already support with cash-and-arms Ukraine’s two-and-a-half-year old war with the Kremlin. Ukraine’s 46-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky opted for war with the Kremlin Feb. 24, 2022 when 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine after failed talks with 81-year-old President Joe Biden about establishing new security arrangements for Ukraine. Zelensky had pushed hard for NATO membership, something that never happened, despite attempts by Biden to twist the Alliance into guaranteeing NATO membership to Ukraine.
Meeting last week in Washington, D.C. for its 75th anniversary, NATO refused to extend membership to Ukraine but, more importantly, made no commitments for the foreseeable future for NATO membership. Zelensky wanted in Washington to push for an ironclad NATO commitment to Ukraine membership. Instead, Zelensky heard a lot of Ukraine’s ongoing corruption, the exact same corruption that offered a lucrative job to 53-year-old Hunter Biden and his friend Devon archer, while Biden was Vice President under former President Barack Obama. How ironic that Biden headed up Obama’s anti-corruption task force in Ukraine yet landed his son and his friend cushy millionaire jobs. Erdogan now warns of a potential conflict between NATO and the Kremlin. “I shared my views candidly here that NATO should never be allowed to be a party the war in Ukraine,” Erdogan said.
Whether it’s lost in translation or not, Erdogan knows that NATO already is in a war against the Kremlin, supplying billions in arms-and-cash to Zelensky’s Kiev government. Zelensky never gets enough cash-and-arms from NATO or the U.S. Erdogan is fooling himself thinking that “NATO should never be allowed to be at war with Ukraine,” they’ve supplied billions to Zelensky for the Ukraine War. Erdogan says he supports the “territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine,” yet doesn’t participate in EU or NATO sanctions against the Kremlin. “I emphasized that diplomacy should not be excluded and that negotiations do not necessarily mean surrendering,” Erdogan said, finally making sense. Zelensky thinks he can make unilateral demands on Putin, without showing any realistic approach to a truce and peace talks. Erdogan isn’t sure how to sit on the fence over Ukraine.
Biden faces calls to withdraw for his disastrous June 27 CNN debate performance, looking incoherent and halting trough the 90-minute event. Whatever Biden does on the campaign stump or on press events, he hasn’t changed too many minds about staying in the 2024 race. Today, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 82, another octogenarian in Congress, urged Democrats today to get behind Biden, saying he will be the party’s nominee. Sanders has little clout in Senate for his extreme leftist views, hardly the one to make the case to retain Biden as the party’s nominee. Bernie defends Biden because they have much in common, their ages, with Bernie knowing he’s long in the tooth like Biden. Bernies knows that if Biden won a second term, it’s highly doubtful he would even finish one year. So, when Democrats want a new nominee, it’s recognizing reality in the party.
Dealing with NATO this week, NATO and EU members had a different view of Biden knowing he could be on his way out. When it comes to the Ukraine War, 78-year-old former President Donald Trump has been emphatic that he’ll end the war in the first 24 hours after winning the election. Zelensky challenged Trump to talk openly how he’d end the Ukraine War but gets ignored by the presumptive GOP nominee. Trump isn’t going to tip his hand to Zelensky, only saying he would have the conflict with the Kremlin settled quickly. Trump doesn’t like that Biden ended generations of U.S.-Russian diplomacy, détente and arms control, all to fund a costly proxy war in Ukraine. Biden knows, but won’t admit it, that the Ukraine War has been lost for over two years. Trump would end the war by leaning on Ukraine and the Kremlin to enter neutral international peace talks.
If Erdogan wants credibility on the global stage, he needs to be more realistic about the Ukraine War. U.S. and NATO fund proxy war against the Kremlin, making the war largely about the U.S., NATO and Moscow, not Ukraine. Zelensky knows that, with all the expected U.S. weapons and cash, he cannot beat the Russian Federation. Erdogan wants NATO to stop provoking Russia, knowing that anything can happen. Biden and Zelensky convince no one that they’re on the verge to defeating the Russian Federation. Both know that no matter how much the U.S. and EU spend, Russia will not surrender anytime soon. Erdogan implores the EU and NATO to get back to diplomacy, knowing that defeating the Kremlin was not possible. Biden and Zelensky have sold NATO and the EU a bill of goods saying that the U.S. and NATO can defeat the Russian Federation.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
