XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, alt.politics.trump   
   XPost: rec.arts.tv, or.politics   
   From: x@y.com   
      
   Opinion: On Ukraine, Donald Trump speaks loudly and carries a small stick   
      
   U.S. President Donald Trump, left, greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr   
   Zelensky, right, as he arrives at the White House on Monday amid   
   negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine, in Washington, D.C.Nathan   
   Howard/Reuters   
      
   Timothy Snyder, the author or editor of 20 books, holds the inaugural Chair   
   in Modern European History at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public   
   Policy at the University of Toronto.   
      
   In the ancient world, people spoke of “Ultima Thule,” a mythical land in   
   the extreme north, at the end of the Earth. By venturing north to Alaska to   
   meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump reached   
   his own Ultima Thule, the Arctic endpoint of a foreign-policy dreamworld.   
      
   For Mr. Trump, foreign leaders can be dealt with like Americans: with   
   fantastic promises and obnoxious bullying. But the fantasies do not   
   function beyond America’s borders. The empty offer of a “beautiful” future   
   does not move dictators who commit crimes to advance their own visions, nor   
   does it affect people who are defending their families from an invasion.   
      
   Mr. Putin has no reason to prefer Mr. Trump’s vision of a beautiful future   
   to his own: a Ukraine with a puppet government, a population cowed by   
   violence, patriots buried in mass graves, and resources in Russian hands.   
      
   Like Mr. Trump’s fantasizing, his bullying also does not work abroad. To be   
   sure, many Americans are afraid of Mr. Trump. He has purged his own   
   political party, with threats of violence helping to keep Republicans in   
   line. He is deploying the U.S. military as a police force, first in   
   California and now in Washington, D.C.   
      
   But foreign enemies apprehend these intimidation tactics differently. The   
   very moves that shock Americans delight America’s foes. In Moscow,   
   deployments of soldiers inside the U.S. look like weakness.   
      
   Tough talk may resonate in America, where words are confused with action.   
   But for Russian leaders, it covers a weak foreign policy. Mr. Trump has   
   made extraordinary concessions to Russia in exchange for nothing at all.   
   Russia has repaid him by continuing its war and mocking him on state-   
   controlled television.   
      
   Even the choice of Alaska for the summit was a concession, and an odd one.   
   Russians, including major figures in state media, routinely claim Alaska   
   for Russia. Inviting people who claim your territory inside your main   
   military base on that territory, to discuss a war of aggression they   
   started without inviting anyone representing the country they invaded –   
   well, that is just about as far as a foreign-policy fantasy can go. It is   
   Ultima Thule.   
      
   U.S. President Donald Trump says he'd back European security guarantees for   
   Ukraine, though he stopped short of committing U.S. troops to the effort   
   during talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.   
      
      
   It was the very end because Mr. Trump had already conceded the more   
   fundamental issues. He does not speak of justice for Russian war criminals   
   or of the reparations Russia owes. He grants that Russia can determine   
   Ukraine’s and America’s foreign policy on the crucial point of NATO   
   membership. And he accepts that Russia’s invasions should lead not only to   
   de facto but also de jure changes in sovereign control over territory.   
      
   Mr. Trump speaks loudly and carries a small stick. The notion that words   
   alone can do the trick has led him to the position that Mr. Putin’s words   
   matter, and so he had to go to Alaska for a “listening exercise.” Mr.   
   Trump’s career has been full of listening to Mr. Putin, and then repeating   
   what Mr. Putin says.   
      
   In Alaska, Mr. Trump faced a very simple question: Would Mr. Putin accept   
   an unconditional ceasefire or not, as he had demanded? Mr. Putin has   
   refused any such thing, and he did so again in Alaska. The Russians   
   proposed an obviously ridiculous and provocative counter: Ukraine should   
   now formally concede territory that Russia does not even occupy, lands on   
   which Ukraine has built its defences. And then Russia can of course attack   
   again, from a far better position.   
      
   Mr. Putin knows that Mr. Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize, so his obvious   
   move is to suggest to Mr. Trump that the war will end someday, and that the   
   U.S. President will get the credit, if the two of them just keep talking –   
   “Next time in Moscow?” Mr. Putin asked before leaving Alaska – while Russia   
   keeps bombing.   
      
   Now that Mr. Trump has failed to secure a ceasefire, there are two paths he   
   can take. He can continue the fantasy, though it will become ever more   
   obvious, even to his friends and supporters, that the fantasy is Mr.   
   Putin’s. Or he can make the war harder for Mr. Putin, and thereby bring its   
   end closer.   
      
   The U.S. has not formalized its outlandish concessions to Russia, and Mr.   
   Trump could rescind them in one press conference. The U.S. has the policy   
   instruments to change the direction of the war in Ukraine, and could employ   
   them.   
      
   Mr. Trump has threatened “severe consequences” if Mr. Putin did not accept   
   an unconditional ceasefire. Those are words, and thus far, the consequences   
   for Russia of Mr. Trump’s words have been more words. This all becomes   
   clear now, at Ultima Thule. Where will he go next?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)