Donald Trump has said he intends to end the war in Ukraine once he takes office, perhaps through negotiation. Trump can hold back material support from the democratic patriots in Ukraine, but his presumption that Ukraine is beholden to kiss America’s ring in consent to a defeat is a sugar-coated sales pitch by the man who penned “The Art of the Deal.”
Ukraine does not require American consent in any form to continue its fight for freedom or to persevere until unconditional victory is secured from the enemy. The material support of the United States has been a windfall to Ukraine in its battle against the murderous tyranny of Russia. But Ukraine’s success against Russia and Vladimir Putin on the battlefield began well before American supplies began rolling into the nation.
They handily pushed back what was meant to be a lightning invasion by Russia to take over Ukraine and decapitate its capital three years ago. That may stand to be the high-water mark of the threat Putin posed to destroying Ukraine. Many Russian soldiers have died in vain since.
Trump’s assertion he will end the war in a few days once in office has nothing to do with reality.
It is a sales pitch, and likely an evil one at that. In Trump’s claim, the president-elect is presuming the sale, something any telemarketer knows to do in the brief training they get, before calling people in the middle of dinner. I know. I was one for about a minute several years ago.
Trump is pitching something more than a forced tranquility on the border between Europe and Asia. He is selling America on Chairman Mao’s assertion that political power comes from the barrel of a gun.
There are other salesmen besides China’s Mao and Trump involved in answering the question of Ukraine’s destiny. There are John Locke and 37 million free Ukranians. Long ago, Locke asserted that the power of a government comes from the consent of the governed.
Our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers agreed, and the United States was born. Even the Soviet Union ultimately agreed with Locke when millions of Russians and Eastern Europeans came out on the streets to end Soviet tyranny more recently.
Ukraine has given an incalculable amount in its 1,000-plus days of war to move to secure a free and united nation. Russians, by some counts, may have sacrificed even more in Putin’s pursuit of tyranny and conquest.
Trump’s sales pitch, if you believe in freedom, has little to do with reality. It is just the tired line of an old man — unless he closes the deal. But it’s always a buyers’ market when Trump is selling something.
The outcome will be determined by the wisdom, or lack of it, residing in Ukraine. Ukraine will decide to go on with the struggle or not to go on. It may consider the cost — who the war has taken away and what their children may lose if they consent to defeat. It is a hard question for a hard time.
Those youngest in Ukraine will face the rest of the 21st century based on that national choice. Trump and Putin will long have become dust while those same children are running human affairs, and maybe still deciding who was right — Mao or Locke?
The truth is Ukraine and humanity have been better served by the likes of Locke than belligerence of tyrants. If America decides to withhold aid, it will be defining its own character, not Ukraine’s destiny. And every day the sun rises and sets on Ukrainians fighting for freedom and justice is a day well-lived. That’s something the citizens of Putin’s Russia may never have the opportunity to fight for.