Trump’s election is worrisome to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and encouraging to Russian President Putin.

Trump’s election is worrisome to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and encouraging to Russian President Putin.  Their war is draining both countries of resources, destroying infrastructure, killing and wounding far too many of their citizens, and the harm extends well beyond their two countries.  Both men are making statements designed to influence Trump in anticipation of his involvement in their dispute and American media are interpreting the various statements based on their opinion of Trump.  Liberal media is worried that Trump will force Kiev to give up territory and ultra conservative media suggests that it is time to end the financial drain the war is making on American resources, irregardless of Kiev’s political desires.

I have long argued that we should never have permitted the war to start in the first place, but that is, today, irrelevant.  Biden permitted the situation to get out of hand long ago and Trump looks like he is going to try to clean it up.  I believe that the options are stark.  We have two choices.  Permit the war to continue without end and face the probability that it will eventually expand into a conflict that involves us in a nuclear exchange with Russia, or negotiate a settlement that involves conceding some territory to Russia in return for some sort of guarantee that Moscow will leave Ukraine alone in the future.  I understand that Zelensky does not like either option.  If I were a Ukrainian citizen I would agree with him.  I am not a Ukrainian citizen.  I favor a negotiated settlement that transfers some portion of Donbas to Russian political control in return for Moscow guaranteeing that it will leave the rest of Ukraine alone.  Hopefully, Trump can also get some sort of commitment from Russia to help in the rebuilding of Ukraine, but I am not optimistic regarding the prospect of this ever happening.

American public opinion is not going to like this solution, and it will further widen the gulf between liberal and conservative inside this country and internationally.  Trump is going to be blamed by liberals in Europe as well as here in this country for pandering to Putin, but that is an oversimplification of the issues involved here.  Foreign and domestic liberals demand that our foreign antagonists play by the rules, but adamantly refuse to engage in actual hostilities to ensure that they do.  Our negotiating position is seen to be hollow pontification and unworthy of consideration by the likes of Putin, Xi, and the mullahs in Teheran.  Our foreign antagonists see us spending our money on sex change therapy instead of military strength.  If we want the world to behave the way we think that it should, we are going to have to be willing to fight for it.  PS:  the same is true here at home.  If we want our streets to be safe, we are going to have to be willing to police them.