LOS ANGELES.–President Donald Trump, 78, has his enemies in the GOP Congress, many of whom backed 82-year-old former President Joe Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine with the Kremlin. Biden was the first-and-only U.S. president to go to war with the Kremlin after decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control. Biden decided when Russia invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022 to fund proxy war with the Kremlin, trying to get 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull out all his troops from Ukraine. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), no fan of Trump, criticized Trump for giving Putin too good of a deal, even though she knows nothing about any peace deal. The president clearly has the ability, has the authority to be negotiating. But I think many of us have suggested that negotiating peace on Putin’s terms is not acceptable,” Murkowsky told reporters, turning the press against Trump.
Trump knows all about anti-Trump Republicans like Murkowski who essentially back 60-uyear-old former Vice President Kamala Harris for president in 2024. “America is right to seek an end to this war, but an end that fails to constrain Russian ambition, ensure Ukrainian sovereignty or strengthen American credibility with both allies and adversaries is no end at all. Instead, such a hollow peace would invite further aggression,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), another enemy of Trump. McConnell likes to speak on the fake news against Trump, agreeing with all the disinformation saying Trump has give away the store to Putin. McConnell is completely out of the loop on any peace negotiations, has no clue what conditions work and what doesn’t work for a peace deal. Yet McConnell, who announced his retirement in two years, likes to grandstand in the anti-Trump media.
McConnell calls it a hollow peace if Putin continues his aggression. But if Putin joins the G7 and G20, returns to global leadership at the U.N. and starts doing business with the EU again, how is that a hollow peace? Zelensky wants security guarantees in any post-war scenario but isn’t improved relations with the U.S. and Ukraine the best path to security? McConnell acts like Putin must be muzzled in any post-war security arrangement. But signing onto the raw earth mineral deal, Zelensky knows that it commits the U.S. to Ukraine for generations to come, assuring the most stable peace possible. McConnell and other Trump detractors like to use hypotheticals about Putin invading other EU countries in the future. Putin knows that NATO countries, unlike Ukraine, live under the NATO security umbrella that protects all EU countries from potential Russian aggression.
Reacting to the Trump White House vetoing a pro-Ukrainian U.N. Security Resolution, Sen. Thom Tillins (R-N.C.) “disagreed” with the U.S. veto in the Security Council. “Putin is a murderer who’s ordered the systematic capture, kidnapping, rape, and torture of countless numbers of Ukrainians,” Tillis said. “That would have been my vote recommendation.” So, if Tillis had his way Biden would have kept the proxy war going with the Kremlin for the foreseeable future. How do you end a war with the parties are into name-calling, not finding common ground to cut a future peace deal? “Putin is a liar and looking for the next opportunity [Russia’s march through Moldova and the west Balkans and everything else,” Tillis said, repeating the Biden talking points. Biden warned that without the Ukraine War Putin would continue taking over other countries.
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “trying to understand” why the Trump White House would veto a pro-Urainian resolution. Well, Trump is trying to mend fences with Putin, so how’s he supposed to condemn him for aggression while he wants him to enter a peace deal? Finding agreement from Sen. Tim Caine (D-Va.), Tillis shows who he agrees with in the Senate, certainly not Trump. “The United States should have been willing to say this was an illegal war unjustly initiated by Russia. If you’re unwilling to state the truth, you begin in a very weak position,” Caine said, disparaging Trump’s peace plans. Caine backed Biden’s proxy war with the Kremlin, even if it destroyed U.S.-Russian relations, turned Russia into a mortal enemy. Trump wants a peace deal not to continue blaming Putin for the war.
Anti-Trump members of Congress know they’re in the minority now about keeping the Ukraine War going indefinitely. No one in Congress wants to acknowledge that Biden pushed Putin into invading Uraine by arming Ukraine to the teeth over Kremlin objections. Biden minds the U.S. store in the Western Hemisphere but when you cross into Russia’s backyard and start arming Russia’s enemies, you start meddling in Russian national security. Biden said from Day One that the Ukraine War was “unprovoked and unjustified,” But if you look at the months and years before Putin’s invasion, it’s clear the U.S. supplied Ukraine lethal weapons to use against the Kremlin. Trump’s enemies in Congress agree with Biden’s warmongering and aggression. They don’t see the Russia’s side of the war, only that Putin started it. Trump wants to move on to normalize U.S.-Russian relations and end the war.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analzyin spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
