Russia is a Terrorist State
Ramblings of a Ukrainian born American
I praise Trump for many of his domestic policies but when it comes to his handling of foreign affairs Trump is doing more harm than good.
Trump bombing Iran’s nuclear sites was a good thing. He would be a hero to freedom-loving people if he would now let Israel finish Iran’s military off. But no, he bombed Iran in order to force them to the negotiating table. Instead of letting the people of Iran choose a free system of governance, Trump, by continuing to ask for negotiations legitimizes the present oppressive theocracy. Biden held Israel back from fighting Iran’s proxies by withholding military aid and now Trump is holding Israel back by insisting on diplomacy. How many years of negotiation were wasted with Iran? The time for talking is over. Iran’s government must go.
Just recently 2 high-ranking religious leaders in Iran have issued a fatwa on Trump and Netanyahu. Yeh, how about that, right after Trump saved Khamenei from Israel. Iran’s nuclear hopes may have been squashed for a while, but its oppressive system remains intact, thanks to Trump. The government in Iran that swore to destroy Israel will continue.
Trump also seems to want to preserve another oppressive system, Russia. Did you know that all references to the Budapest Memorandum were wiped completely from the White House Website?
Ukraine is fighting for its life. Ukraine was betrayed by the West and yet it may very well be fighting to preserve the West. Trump keeps talking about Ukraine negotiating with Russia. The time for that is also over. Only talk Russia wants is for Ukraine to surrender unconditionally. Putin can be defeated; it can be done economically. Trump knows that, the world knows that, but he will not take that necessary step, why? The West can’t use the argument that Russia has nukes. That “logic” will allow Russia to conquer Ukraine and encourage it to march over any other country that does not have nukes. Many think that Russia’s bluff is just that.
Russian missiles and drones are continuously raining down on Ukrainian cities. Their intent is to terrorize the civilians into submission. One of their tactics is to bomb large high rise apartment complexes. They employ double-tap strikes. After the first bombing they follow up with a second strike, on the same location. Using cluster munitions, they kill the first responders who rushed in to help. Russia has bombed Ukrainian cities to rubble and just like Israel, which avoids Iranian civilian casualties, Ukraine goes out of its way to avoid killing Russian civilians. Iranian civilians deserve that respect from Israel but I’m not so sure that Russian civilians do also, not that I would support bombing them. Unlike the people in Iran, report is that most Russians support Putin. With a few exceptions:
Ukraine does its best to stop many of the missiles and drones but it’s not enough. They have some Patriots but need a lot more. Trump refuses to sell them. Yes, that’s right, Zelensky offered to buy Patriots from us. The last admin allocated funding for military assistance. Now Trump is cutting that funding. You’d think that Trump does not want Ukraine to win the war. From the very beginning he gave that impression. He told us many wrong things about Ukraine and Zelensky. I documented many of them in my previous post. I wonder who his advisor on Ukraine is?
Trump seems to have an affinity for dictators. In Afghanistan Trump made a deal with the Taliban behind the Afgan government’s back to pull US troops out of that country. Biden’s withdrawal of our military was a horrible disaster, but it was not why the Taliban took over and so quickly. With promises from the Taliban to behave, Trump set the stage for that disaster. Trump shakes hands with and embraces dictators from the Middle East and other countries. He keeps on telling us that he likes Putin and said he likes Xi Jinping very much. When Trump talks about taking over Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Panama Canal, Gaza and some other places, that’s a signal to his dictator buddies. After all, Taiwan belongs to China, Ukraine belongs to Russia?
Ukrainians have a long and tragic history with Russia. It’s a history of mass starvation, mass deportations and of never-ending atrocities committed by the Russians against Ukraine. During recent prisoners swaps Russian barbarism came to full display. While Ukraine returned Russian prisoners fed and healthy it wasn’t the case with Ukrainian prisoners. They were malnourished, many were beaten and tortured, autopsies of dead Ukrainian soldiers returned by the Russian showed the effects of torture. Russians execute Ukrainian prisoners routinely and in the most brutal way. One horrible way they kill Ukrainian prisoners is by tying them to a motorcycle and dragging him until he’s dead.
Europe wants to apply harsh sanctions against Russia, but they won’t do it without Trump’s approval. The senate had 81, veto proof, senators ready to vote for sanctions but Trump somehow managed to stop them, so far. Russia is running on a very thin economic “margin”, the war is draining their resources. Just like Reagan who took down the Soviet Union by outspending them militarily, Trump can stop Putin’s military with harsh sanctions. Recently he’s given hints that he might give Ukraine Patriot defenses, and he seem to be seriously thinking about placing sanctions on Russia. This is contrary to just breaking news that Trump has halted, previously approved, defense parts to Ukraine. At the same time, he lifted some economic sanctions on Russia.
The word is that Trump badly wants a Nobel Prize for Peace and that by brokering a ceasefire between Iran and Israel will help get him that prize. He supposedly was furious that Obama got a Nobel Peace prize. Obama’s prize was not deserved, actually it was a joke. If Trump does lay sanctions on Russia, it would be for getting Putin to accept a cease fire. It would not be harsh enough to topple Putin’s regime with the hope of a new saner government being formed. That is what I’m afraid of. Russia needs to be hurt badly enough where it would completely pull out of Ukraine. At the ceasefire Trump will try to force Zelensky to give up parts of Ukraine held by Russia. You know, the invader gets a prize for stopping invading. Trump was talking about partitioning Ukraine from the very beginning.
When you allow an aggressor to go unpunished then you draw moral equivalency between good and evil. Provided that you know the difference. It may be that Trump will go down in history as saving two murdering dictatorships.