George Rebane
Today marked another malignant milestone in the US/Ukraine relationship. President Trump aborted his much-publicized meeting with President Zelensky, and told him to come back when heβs ready to make peace in the three-year Russo-Ukraine war. The intended objective of the meeting was for both presidents to sign an agreement that would serve as the framework for a more detailed treaty between US and Ukraine spelling out how we would mine their rare earth minerals and share the profits therefrom.
The trouble started when Trump said again that he has a good relationship with Putin and believes that the thug would honor any subsequent peace agreement to end the war. Trump also needlessly pointed out that Zelensky has no hand to play in these negotiations and will observe the proceedings like a potted plant. In his turn Zelensky had the temerity to once more caution Trump that Putin has violated every agreement he has signed, many with Ukraine.
The bottom line that should be clear after all these decades in dealing with communists, Marxists, and dictators that none of them have or have ever had a βgood relationshipβ with ANYONE. They have all ended with their naΓ―ve counterparties getting screwed in the end, which usually has arrived sooner than later. For Trump to trumpet his βgood relationshipβ with Vladimir illustrates our presidentβs naivete in going into these negotiations with Russia, and gives rise to peals of laughter inside the Kremlinβs walls. And Zelensky got shown the door today for just bringing up this cautionary piece of history that awkwardly shone a light on Trumpβs kindergarten view of his good relations with Putin, Xi, and the ugly fat kid.
If all this geo-political stumbling turns out to be a brilliant opening round to a resolution that stops the fighting, gets us the minerals, and secures the peace (with the US threatening to use its club on anyone who messes with ongoing American investments and mine operations), then I will have egg on my face and gladly admit to my own naivete about how Trump executes the art of the deal.
In the interval, Rebane Doctrine calls for us to engineer a regime change in the Kremlin, preferably with Vladimirβs defenestration by one of his oligarchs with whom he has a βgood relationshipβ. Short of that we should light a candle in the National Cathedral for Trumpβs hoped for epiphany.


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