WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump again wants Greenland. The president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the U.S. to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allied countries with which he’s picking fights even before taking office on Jan. 20.
In a Sunday announcement naming his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote that, “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” Trump again having designs on Greenland comes after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the U.S. could retake control of the Panama Canal if something isn’t done to ease rising shipping costs required for using the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
He’s also been suggesting that Canada become the 51st U.S. state and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., said Trump tweaking friendly countries harkens back to an aggressive style he used during his days in business. “You ask something unreasonable and it’s more likely you can get something less unreasonable,” said Farnsworth, who is also author of the book “Presidential Communication and Character.”
Greenland, the world’s largest island, sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 80% covered by an ice sheet and is home to a large U.S. military base. It gained home rule from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, suggested that Trump’s latest calls for U.S. control would be as meaningless as those made in his first term. “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom.”
The Danish Prime Minister’s Office said in its own statement that the government is “looking forward to welcoming the new American ambassador. And the government is looking forward to working with the new administration.”
Comment: So what’s with Trump’s recent fascination with territorial aggrandizement? Does America First mean an activist foreign policy? Maybe, but I think Stephen Farnsworth is very likely correct in thinking that Trump’s territorial yearnings are just signs of an aggressive negotiating style. Trump may not really want Canada, the Panama Canal and Greenland, but he’s taking these crazy-assed positions up front as a way to get to some other win. The alternative, that he’s pushing for American expansionism, is disconcerting to say the least. I don’t think that’s what the MAGA crowd signed up for.
TTG
It is a typical Trump tactic. Ask for everything and settle, at times, for much less. If you don’t believe me, just visit the beautiful 2000 mile long border wall that Trump built and Mexico paid for. The add the reality that Trump can’t do any of his suggestion on his own. Thus you end up with that border wall. What it does however, is showing as it has been said: Trump is all hat and no cattle.
I’m a MAGA guy and, if you recall, I was saying a little while back that we should invade Mexico and rule it like Romans. I also suggested doing the same to Canada if they don’t get their act together and control their border, eschew socialism and autocratic denial of rights, like free speech.
Trump was talking about obtaining Greenland during his first term too. The obsession seems obscure and is a little puzzling, but what the heck, why not? Seems military/national defense in nature based on what I can glean from Trump’s statements.
I expect he’s just trolling Trudeau, perhaps using that to boost the chances of the Tories in the 2025 elections. I was thinking he was doing the same for the Panameñistas, but perhaps not as the Prez, José Raúl Mulino, is conservative and his Party holds the most seats in Parliament. Some are saying Trump’s just pissed that they caught his hotel cheating on Panamanian taxes.
Greenland’s a special case. It’s probably his smartest move. I think Ike made an offer to the Danes back during the Cold War to take it off their hands.
Leith,
Panamanians, land of ‘free trade zones’ and money laundering, outraged someone avoided ,”cheated”, on their taxes is funny. Are they stopping all that human traffic transiting from South to North through their country? That’s more likely to be what this is about.
Fred, for your limited knowledge of Panama.
https://www.woodwellclimate.org/drought-panama-canal-7-graphics/
I largely agree with your Point 1 &2. Regarding Greenland, I am sure they prefer to deals with the Danes rather than American dysfunction. The US still have a large base there. As they say: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Lars –
While Greenland is an autonomous territory, only Denmark is allowed to handle foreign policy and security. There is lot of suspicion in Copenhagen that we will entice the Greenlandics to declare full independence.
leith,
I agree that Trump’s coveting Canada is mostly about trolling Trudeau. I think his fascination with Greenland has a lot to do with the Mercator Projection. Trump admits to an interest in maps and Greenland looks like a much bigger prize than it really is on those maps. I wouldn’t doubt if that projection had a lot to do with earlier offers to buy Greenland besides Trump.
TTG –
I believe you’re right. That Mercator map distortion also makes Putin’s Russian Federation look about three or four times bigger than it actually is.
PS – Hanging on the wall in my barn there’s a Buckminster Fuller designed map taking out the distortion. It has neither north nor south. Africa looks as big as Russia and China combined. As an experiment in mapping I once successfully peeled an orange into a single piece like Fuller did. But it took a half a dozen or so oranges before I finally succeeded.
TTG –
But I’ll quibble with your notion that the earlier offer to buy Greenland were also based on Mercator befuddlement.
President Eisenhower surely understood map projections. His offer was based on national security concerns – he built the DEW early warning line and placed one of the DEW radar stations at Thule – and he was cognizant of the importance of the GIUK Gap in detection of Soviet ballistic missile submarines.
Trump doesn’t own a globe?
oh, he owns one alright. made of gold lame. the problem is he doesn’t understand it.
Trump often compares himself to Lincoln…maybe a “Jeffersonian expansionist” image he now wants to project.
I am willing to wager that there will never be a monument for Trump at the Mall. The delusions of Trump and his boyfriend Elmu will not survive contact with reality.
Linking to my above posting to Fred:
“Drought, driven by a combination of El Niño and climate change, has disrupted shipping through the Panama Canal in recent months. Dropping water levels in Gatún Lake forced Panama Canal authorities to pose restrictions on the number of ships that can pass the canal, dropping from the normal 38 down to 24 transits a day by November 2023, causing long queues at nearby ports as ships wait their turn to pass. If the restrictions remain in place through 2024, there could be up to 4,000 fewer ships—with cargo ranging from children’s toys, to solar panel components, to life-saving insulin—passing the canal in 2024. Delay and disruption along shipping routes will only become a more common occurrence in a warmer world…..”
The Panama Canal locks are dependent upon fresh water supply from Panama’s surrounding lakes. With climate conditions likely to deteriorate further, maybe Trump can get the US to buy back the Canal cheap as it becomes a ditch.
al,
China has been investing in Panama and the Canal for her own strategic reasons. Part of those investments are the construction of a cross Panama railway that will relieve some of canal ship transits as well as energy and water pumping infrastructure that will help alleviate the effects of droughts. Yes, all this increases Chinese influence, but it also ensures the future viability of the Canal.
All that is of concern to US interests but threatening to seize control of the Canal is a truly imperialistic response. If Trump wants to compete, he’ll have to invest, not invade.
al,
The immigrants transiting from South of Panama are going North and the Panamanian government is not stopping them. Rain or lack thereof isn’t stopping them either.
TTG,
“I don’t think that’s what the MAGA crowd signed up for”
I don’t think the MAGA crowd care or have signed up to anything. They are in the cult of Trump. Whatever the cult leader says is always right. Trump could say “hey the Pope is a muslim”and they will say “yes sir”.
TonyL,
Imagine the congressional landslide when he says “I’m a democrat again”
Fred,
Don’t tempt fate and give him that idea. Trump is a “stable genius”.
TonyL,
Yeah – the covid hysteria mask wearing people, who further believe the mantra that a man in a dress really is a woman, fancy themselves independent thinkers. They also like to be convinced that there is a mindless Trump cult of some 80 million people in the US.
There are not that many mindless cult members, but there is enough of them currently. A lot of people who voted for Trump do not expect him to do much of what he claims he will do. I suspect that some of what gets done will not be received well by them and a lot of what does not get done will bother those cult members.
Lars,
As long as he’s not furthering the cult(s) of woke, gender confusion, big government/deep state, green new deal/climate doom, socialism, globalism, open borders and the rest of the insane clap trap that too many mindless cult members believe in, we’ll be just fine, thank you.
I think you need to read up on the definition of “cult”. MAGA checks all the squares. Your other samples do not and the main difference is that only MAGA has a Dear Leader, which is a required for a cult.
Eric, MAGA population estimated at 30Mill. The rest of 50Mill going along ’til another day.
al,
Define your terms in detail please. What is a “MAGA population”? What is “going along ’til another day”?
Next, cite sources, please. I’m kind of guessing that the source is whoever programs Al-bot, which is either a three letter agency or the DNC (as if there’s much daylight between the two). However, I hold out hope that you are actually working from, albeit loosely, the findings of some semi-scientific study of voter attitudes, etc.
Eric, pulled the MAGA figures out of my hat.
I know many friends/acquaintances/neighbors who voted for Trump. . Most say they do not like him, really do not trust him…but, the “lesser of two evils”. They voted for Trump purely on inflation issues.
On the other hand, I know far fewer Trump voters among my friends/neighbors/social who proudly wear the “red hats” and BELIEVE Trump can do not wrong.
My estimation is a 70/30 split. Purely observational.
Al,
“I know many friends/acquaintances/neighbors who voted for Trump. . Most say they do not like him, really do not trust him…but, the “lesser of two evils”. They voted for Trump purely on inflation issues.”
Yes, a lot of Republican voters became one-issue voters, holding their noses and voted for Trump. But guess what? they were mostly wrong. Typical issues among my conservative friends:
– Abortion. Trump does not care one way or the other. But the side effect is we have a conservative Supreme Court who are subordinated to the Republican POTUS. So that works for them.
– Inflation. There will be a lot more inflation when Trump enacts his policies as he promised.
– Immigration. Trump is a demagogue so he played to anti-immigration sentiment, but had done nothing significant in his 1st term. Other than built a “beautiful wall” section at the border, and then abandoned that project. My prediction is Trump will mass-deports the criminals currently in the prison first, and then abandon the mass departation promise. But if eventually, Vance uses 25th Amendment to remove Trump (when Trump’s dementia got worse publicly), … watch out America!
The obvious explanation is that Trump is a Monroe kinda’ guy: he wants the USA to concentrate on ruling the roost in the Western Hemisphere, and that includes Greenland as well as Canada and Panama.
They all must bend the knee, and if they refuse then too bad for Justin and too bad for his Panama/Greenland counterparts.
The corollary would then be that he’s not much interested in anywhere outside that Hemisphere.
China? Do a deal. Win/Win.
Ukraine? Dump ’em like last year’s blonde.
NATO? Nah, look after yourself.
Russia? I Don’t Care.
I think you are all downplaying this as some sort of mischievous trolling by Trump because… well, what, boredom?
No, I think this a big deal. Trump is angling for a Trump-doctrine: like the Monroe-doctrine only much more biggly.
It was much easier in Monroe’s days to enact a doctrine and those days are long gone. The only doctrine forming today is the Elmo Doctrine, which states that the country should be ruled by the oligarchs. Some of the lesser informed MAGAs are about to find out how they have been screwed, as they find out that they have become what Lenin referred to as ” useful idiots”. When they find out, should we call them “woke”?
YR,
Bingo! We have a winner. I agree with you 100% – and find the ruminations of some of our fellow correspondents to humorously clueless and off-base.
The US cannot have China, massive drug cartels as government, migrant smuggling UN/NGOs, socialism, etc. taking root in its hemisphere. This is so simple and obvious, but I guess not so much to profoundly daffy the “man in a dress really is a woman” and “open borders are good for the country” crowd.
There appears to be some suggestion that these statements from Trump are just brain-explosions from someone who is just indulging in childish name-calling and baiting.
Why?
Trump has had four years to think about what he wants to do in his second term. He already has his foreign policy team advising him.
He isn’t just blowing wind from his nether-regions. He is signalling what his second-term agenda is going to be, and it is going to be all about consolidation.
He is *not* interested in Ukraine. He is *not* interested in NATO, much less in the EU.
He is *not* interested in engineering a war with China over Taiwan, and I really doubt that he is interested in going to war with Iran because Netanyahu wants a “Greater Israel”.
No. He wants to establish an iron grip on the Western Hemisphere because he considers – correctly, IMHO – that this will make the USA’s position impregnable, whereas imperial over-extension will exhaust and eventually collapse the USA.
It isn’t petulance that is driving these statements, it is “realism”.
Yeah, Right,
His stated plans for expanding the US just continue US imperial over-extension in other geographical directions. But I do think his plans involve the application of primarily economic/trade power rather than military power.
TTG,
Imperial over-extension? The Monroe Doctrine was a good idea then and its enforcement is critical to national defense now. This has little to do with US imperialism. It’s more about thwarting Chinese imperialism; along with the bad ideas that China encourages other countries to practice and spread so as to weaken target countries (pretty much the while earth) before the Han move in for the kill.
For all the hatred toward Russia that you display, your nonchalance concerning China is always surprising.
Eric Newhill,
If Trump plans to pay more attention to China’s efforts to increase her influence in Central and South America, that’s a good and prudent plan. It doesn’t require seizing the Panama Canal. That’s imperialism worthy of the most hard core neocon. I would think confronting China’s actions in the region would require economic action, even hard ball economic action. But that’s also solidly neocon in nature.
Word-salad, TTG.
Trump is consolidating US power. He is buttressing its position in the western Hemisphere.
That’s not “over-extension”, quite the reverse.
If you want to talk about “US imperial over-extension” then I would like to point you to the hundreds of US military bases that are OUTSIDE the Western Hemisphere.
I mean, honestly, “Central Command”? “Africa Command”?
TTG,
You’re a confusing person. You’re all for uninvited US troops in Syria, ostensibly protecting some damn Kurds, as well as, of course, US everything in Ukraine, but you are against protecting our own borders and critical interests in our own hemisphere.
Is it TDS (if Trump wants it, it’s bad)? Is it that suicidal empathy that afflicts progressives?
Eric Newhill,
US troops are in Syria to fight ISIS. The Kurds are our allies in doing so. No US troops are in Ukraine.
We should be protecting our borders and controlling who crosses those borders. The continuing flow of “getaways” proves there’s more to be done and I wish Trump success in cutting that flow to zero. Protecting and furthering our interests in this hemisphere should not entail invading and occupying territories as we desire or trying to incorporate Canada and Greenland into the US.
YR,
Re, “brain explosions” – the US media and democrat party (same thing, really) are incapable of honest adult discussion on any topic, but devolve even further into childish name calling and vacuous misrepresentations of reality when it comes to Trump. For them, everything Trump says or does must be depicted as originating in the depths of lunacy.
TTG,
No US troops in Ukraine? Really?
I think you’d at least agree that there are US troops virtually in Ukraine, providing targeting, logistics, training, etc. – but What Yeah Right said, we’re all over the globe. I presume the purpose is to fight if need be. Why is Africom ok, but Panama not? Or the Balkans?
Why is the USMC reorganizing and gearing up for a war in the Pacific against China, but securing the Panama Canal is off limits? You do understand how critical the Panama Canal would be in a war against China, correct?
It is irrelevant why the US military is squatting in Syria. We are there. It’s no secret that I despise jihadis and have an ancestral interest in the safety of the Christians in Syria. As an aside, I do not see any evidence that the US cares about the Christians.
What economic measures could secure the Panama Canal from the predations of the Chinese? I can’t think of any that the Chinese couldn’t double down and overcome.
Your reticence to use force to secure the strategically and economically critical canal will continue to baffle me given US military commitments across the globe that have little to no apparent value to the US.
Eric Newhill,
You do realize that SouthCom covers the contingency of the defense of the Panama Canal. And I guarantee there are plans and troop lists to cover that contingency. But there is no imminent and certainly no immediate threat of a foreign seizure of the Canal. China is gearing up to be able to invade Taiwan in the next few years or so not strike the far, far target of the Panama Canal.
What economic measures can we take? We could not cede that front to China. We can offer to build better infrastructure projects to keep the canal running efficiently drought or no drought. Basically, we can out bid and out build China if we choose to do so.
TTG,
Japan wanted to take over Asia, yet they executed a surprise strike on far away Pearl Harbor. Same reason the Chinese would seize the Panama Canal.
Lord only knows what SouthCom is up to these days. With prostitutes to the Chinese, like the Bidens and half of congress running things, my faith in SouthCom isn’t too big. Why wait until the enemy is inside the wire to react? Why even tolerate enemy probes? I bet you wouldn’t allow that happening to your infantry company perimeter. Why allow it with something as serious as the canal?
Eric Newhill,
SouthCom is up to the same things in its AOR as the other geographic commands are up to in theirs. It works with partner militaries in the region and prepares for contingency operations in Panama and elsewhere through exercises such as PANAMAX 2024 last August.
TTG,
I hope SouthCom is following the bouncing ball better than the US Treasury Dept.
TTG – agree wholeheartedly. ” The alternative, that he’s pushing for American expansionism, is disconcerting to say the least. I don’t think that’s what the MAGA crowd signed up for.”
Except that when it comes to foreign policy, I don’t believe the MAGA crowd have much interest in that at all. A few cliches about standing tall or being the exceptional nation keeps them happy and few look further. My impression is that they are more interested in seeing remedied the extensive corruption and maladministration in the US. I hope Trump’s genuine on that, and is successful.
Not just for the sake of the US! My own country suffers even more from those maladies and with any luck reform might rub off on us. And the Europeans might be tempted to reverse the decay in their own polities if they see the Americans reversing the decay in theirs.
All something of a long shot of course. Trump’s remarkable qualities of courage and tenacity didn’t do much for him in that first term so why should they in the second? One feels like bellowing across the Atlantic “It’s your last chance, you bloody fools, so don’t wreck it.” But there’s profit and advancement to be got from the rampant corruption and mismanagement in Washington so the forces against him will be very strong.
On foreign policy Tramp has less chance to influence events. On the main foreign policy problem at the moment, Ukraine, what happens in the Ukrainian war will be decided by Putin, not Trump, and all the frantic discussions in the West are so much wasted breath. The Europeans, far more possessed of gut Russia-hatred than the Americans, will not succeed in keeping the Americans up to the mark in their anti-Russia crusade. But the White Tiger’s got no teeth and won’t get anywhere solo. So the Europeans aren’t serious players. For their part the Americans, still spinning their unrealistic fantasies of ceasefire or partition, will be reduced to making do with whatever Putin allows them for face-saving purposes.
He may not allow them much. Putin’s own room for manoeuvre is now limited. His speech to the Foreign Office officials set out conditions that he cannot walk back without losing credibility himself:-
“I repeat our firm stance: Ukraine should adopt a neutral, non-aligned status, be nuclear-free, and undergo demilitarisation and denazification. These parameters were broadly agreed upon during the Istanbul negotiations in 2022, including specific details on demilitarisation such as the agreed numbers of tanks and other military equipment. We reached consensus on all points.
Certainly, the rights, freedoms, and interests of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine must be fully protected. The new territorial realities, including the status of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions as parts of the Russian Federation, should be acknowledged. These foundational principles need to be formalised through fundamental international agreements in the future. Naturally, this entails the removal of all Western sanctions against Russia as well.”
“President of Russia Vladimir Putin’s speech at the meeting with senior staff of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow, June 14, 2024”
https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1957107/
“Naturally, this entails the removal of all Western sanctions against Russia as well.”
No one seemed to notice that rider. Yet it’s been stressed since, notably by Lavrov in the Newsweek interview. There has been a spate of announcements since, from Putin down, tightening yet further the terms on which the Russians would consider a negotiated peace.
It was obvious from Istanbul on that the only negotiations on the Ukrainian war possible would be negotiations on the terms of Ukrainian capitulation. That’s now been extended. The Russian terms are now more far reaching. To the neutralisation of remnant Ukraine that was the goal of the SMO we’re now seeing added the demand for the effective neutralisation of Europe itself. That’s what the demand for a new European Security Architecture boils down to. That’s not in Trump’s gift.
And the demand for the lifting of all sanctions? Also not in Trump’s gift. There will therefore be no negotiations of substance with Kellog. The Russians will settle matters in Ukraine as best suits them and may, if Trump is lucky, allow him a few face saving measures to keep him in countenance. As Borrell said all that time ago, this conflict will be decided on the battlefield.
So much for the Ukrainian enterprise. On American foreign policy generally, what happened to Westphalia? Used to be a lot of talk about that before Trump’s first term. Is that still the aim?
I hope so. American foreign policy, and that means Western foreign policy in reality, is now so discredited that only a radical change of course will answer. Here’s Glenn Diesen ( link courtesy of “b”, MOA) setting out what that would entail:-
“The Case for Dismantling the Rules-Based International Order
Professor Glenn Diesen”
Glenn Diesen
Dec 23, 2024
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/the-case-for-dismantling-the-rules
Looks good to me, Diesen’s Westphalia. If we value the West at all, and I do, very much, let’s hope it looks good to Trump.
EO,
I agree that Trump wants an end to the Russian-Ukrainian war and is willing to do something to bring that about. But his most recent statements about continuing to arm Ukraine and Kellogg’s point that we must enable Ukraine to negotiate from a position of strength may dash your hopes of a quick Russian victory. I think Trump is far less fearful of the horrors of a Russian collapse than the Biden administration and he’s willing to let Putin not get what he wants.
Diesen seems to want to revert to international law as a guide to behavior among nations. Well isn’t foremost among those laws a prohibition against the territorial invasion of neighboring countries. Russia broke that law and must accept the consequences. You worry about the rights of Russian speaking Ukrainians. A lot of those Russian speaking Ukrainians are fighting the Russian invaders, the mostly Russian speaking 3rd Assault Brigade among them. They fight the Russians who kill, imprison and oppress the Ukrainians in the occupied territories for wanting to be Ukrainian.
“Well isn’t foremost among those laws a prohibition against the territorial invasion of neighboring countries.”
Correct TTG, but as President Trump has approved Israel’s annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights, Americans can’t pretend to disapprove of territorial aggression.
We also haven’t seen any sanctions on Israel due the annexation in. Hence most of the world can’t be bothered with sanctions on Russia’s plans in Ukraine.
Poul,
Yes, I agree Israel is getting away with murder in Gaza… literally. Doesn’t make it right.
Poul,
Israel seized the Golan Heights in the ’67 war. They were never going to give it back.
TTG – I don’t think the hopes of people like me have anything to do with it. If they did we would not have installed neo-Nazis in control in Kiev. Nor would we have armed and trained the Ukrainians as proxy troops to use against the Russians.
I am of course sorry for the Russians. They didn’t go looking for trouble in Ukraine but got it all the same. But more so for the Ukrainians. Hundreds of thousands of men, many of them first class troops and heroic fighters, have been wantonly thrown away at the behest of Washington and Berlin/Brussels. I objected to the callous expenditure of those Ukrainians when the Colonel was alive and still do.
But wishes and objections, mine or anyone else’s, are not relevant in this context. What will happen in Ukraine is what inevitably had to happen as soon as the sanctions war failed.
Because there was never a chance of a purely military victory for the West here. Wrong theatre, wrong adversary. We put our money on sanctions and those failing, we should have made the best of failure and not insisted on so many more lives being squandered.
Which we’re still doing, at the rate of between a thousand and two thousand men a day. Makes no odds to the ghouls currently in charge in the White House but I note that Trump himself spoke feelingly of the Kursk landscape being littered with dead bodies so maybe he’ll stop the throwing of good money after bad.
On that, I suppose Trump does have more influence than implied above. Hope he’s able to use it.
EO,
“They didn’t go looking for trouble in Ukraine but got it all the same.”
Where do you get this stuff? Russia seized Crimea without provocation (although I understand their fear). She fully supported the Donbas rebels (also understandable), but instigated violet resistance (Girkin) and sent forces to participate in the fighting. And most egregiously, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Victory for the West would have consisted of discouraging the 2022 invasion. That failed. Now it consists of the continued survival of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s best efforts to exterminate Ukraine.
Russia needs the fighting and sanctions to stop at least as bad as Ukraine needs the fighting to stop. I think it all depends on what Putin can spin as a win to his people.
TTG – trouble is, that’s just the story sold to us. The Russians don’t buy that story because they know the facts. They’ve lived them. Many Ukrainians don’t buy it either because they also know the facts. And the facts are quite otherwise.
But that’s not the point here. Let’s assume that Putin really is the mad dictator our press make him out to be, and that the Russians are hell bent on conquering Europe. That’s also the story sold to us by our politicians and press.
Even assuming that, nothing can excuse the gross incompetence with which we have fought this war. Wanton incompetence, in fact, because while our politicians were openly boasting that we were getting Russians killed at little cost to ourselves we ignored the fact that it was at huge cost to our proxies.
Inexcusable. That wanton incompetence has lost the Ukrainians a million men and their country.
Such as Cavoli and Radakin will get medals and honours for their amateurish conduct of this war.
But for pushing men into foreseeably disastrous ventures such as the “Summer Offensive” or Krynki or Kursk they would more properly be cashiered. They would be, had they thrown away our own troops away like that. And the Ukrainians are fully aware of that. They’re not fools, if we are.
And this military farce is not over even yet. Whilst even the dumbest can now see this is a lost war we’re still pressing them to further pointless sacrifice. We’re insisting they lower the age for conscription.
For what? To save face for the politicians? Because we can’t think of anything else to do? We pushed the Ukrainians into a quite unnecessary war and then sold them out. Surely that’s crime enough without insisting they lose yet more?
TTG – should have added this to the statements confirming Russian conditions for negotiation:-
“Russia not to deviate ‘one bit’ from its main conditions in talks on Ukraine — speaker”
“MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Talks on settling the Ukraine conflict will definitely start next year, they will not be easy and Russia is ready for compromises yet with the strict observance of its main terms voiced earlier, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told journalists.
“Certainly, the negotiation process will begin next year, without any doubt, but in my opinion it will be very complex,” she said.
“No doubt, one must seek compromises in any talks but with the strict observance of the main terms voiced by Russia. And Istanbul agreements that were undermined, had the foundation, the basis of our approaches. I am not going to reiterate them, you know them perfectly well. Now, this is the constant element, we will not yield on this one bit,” Matviyenko added.
She also emphasized that the president had repeatedly voiced Russia’s terms, including at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s board meeting in June. “We are ready to sit down at the negotiating table at any moment. But what we went through with the Minsk Agreements won’t be repeated,” the Federation Council speaker concluded.
On June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined the country’s conditions for resolving the situation in Ukraine, including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbass and Novorossiya, and Ukraine renouncing its NATO membership ambitions. Moscow also insists that all Western sanctions on Russia be lifted and that Ukraine’s non-alignment and non-nuclear status be guaranteed. Kiev rejected the Russian peace plan.
https://tass.com/politics/1892549
That’s the sanctions condition surfacing again – and being emphasised. “Moscow also insists that all Western sanctions on Russia be lifted …”
Matviyenko also says “Russia is ready for compromises ..” – but there’s no room for more than a few cosmetic compromises, given those conditions.
Seems as if the Russians don’t really want a negotiated settlement, either with Washington or with Kiev.
Why would they? No settlement leaves them room to take Odessa and other Russian majority areas should they decide to do so, and also leaves them room for counter-sanctions if the European Cold War talk goes further than posturing and becomes inconvenient to them.
In fact the only reason Moscow needs to talk about negotiations at all is to keep their Brics partners happy. But the pressure from the Brics partners, particularly China and India, has fallen off of late. After the deep strikes, and after Kursk, those countries are recognising that the Ukrainian problem needs a more radical solution than they were pushing for earlier.
And Trump probably doesn’t appreciate that after Gaza the international mood has changed. In supporting the atrocities there the West has lost much of its diplomatic and moral credibility. I suspect the mood of international diplomats is now, “Hell, if this is how it’s going to be then let the Russians sort the Ukraine problem out as they see fit.”
That last is speculation of course but as for the rest of it, I don’t think the Russians ever put much faith in negotiation, even as far back as the Belarus talks. Prepared to give it a go, yes, but since February 2022 they’ve always known, in truth, that they were going to have to take the West on and defeat it if the Ukrainian problem was ever going to be resolved.
EO,
Sounds like the sanctions are indeed killing the Russian economy and hampering her war effort. Otherwise she wouldn’t be so adamant about lifting them.
TTG: “Otherwise she wouldn’t be so adamant about lifting them.”
This is just juvenile reductionism.
The Russians have been placed under unilateral “western” economic sanctions.
The Russians do not believe that the “west” has a right to impose such unilateral economic sanctions.
The Russians therefore are absolutely determined that one of the outcomes that they demand is that the back is broken on this notion that the “west” has such a right, much less that they are entitled to impose such sanctions.
It has NOTHING to do with the efficacy of such sanctioning, and everything to do with restructuring global trade to eliminate such a wasteful and – to be honest – utterly bankrupt abuse of a privileged position in international trade.
Are you even aware that during this period of “Russian economy killing” its economy has overtaken both the German and Japanese economies to move into 4th place?
As Churchill once said about his own country: “Some neck. Some Chicken”.
The Russians are playing for ALL the marbles, not just pissing around for shits and giggles.
They want a complete restructuring of how the world conducts itself on a country-by-country basis, and one of the very basic thing they want to restructure is this entire “economic sanctions” bullshit.
Smells kind of like Lebensraum.
Hmmm, where and from whom have I heard that term before?
47 comments & no mention of how revising the Monroe Doctrine might go over in S America. as to the Panama Canal, why not let Panama have the Chinese improve the facilities? are they going to position armed forces there? if push comes to shove, can’t the US just take Panama anytime, like we did in ’89?
speaking of takeovers, if trump & cronies are dying for action, why not take Cuba back as a humanitarian act of kindness. his brilliance as a casino operator can Make Cuba A Gangland Again.
Ked,
The Chinese are very imperial. Yes, they could – probably would – station armed soldiers at the canal. Then if the US needs to step in militarily, it’s too late because we’d be going to war with China. But the problem is more than that possibility. The damn Chinese are willing to do whatever it takes to weaken the US. Whatever it takes includes physical approaches as well as ideological. It is lunacy to allow them to grow stronger in our backyard – and for what? To preserve the sovereignty of some banana republics and their tin horn leaders? The Chinese don’t respect that sovereignty.
Also, lots of drugs and migrants flow to the US through Panama. That needs to be stopped yesterday.
Eric: “The Chinese are very imperial. ”
I could not disagree more.
The Chinese are not “imperial”, they are “mercantile”.
Always have been, always will be.
YR,
Historically, yes, I agree with you, but times change and cultures adapt and evolve.
Think about it. Sooner or later aggressive mercantile policies, and that’s what BRICS and Belt & Road are, require gunboats.
This discussion is out of my lane. But I wonder why the Chinese don’t bypass Panama by building a canal or a railroad through Nicaragua, or Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Although the Sandinistas in Nicaragua might be more open to doing business with ChiComs.
Kind of like what Chairman Xi is doing to Putin by bypassing Russia in his new railroad to Europe via Central Asia.
The Vanderbilts were interested in a Nicaraguan Canal and rail link 180 years ago and there have been several other interested parties even in modern times.
Leith,
My guess would be that the sneaky inscrutable little bastards are working on a time frame that is shorter than the time it takes to dig a big canal. Also, digging the canal would be obvious. Much better opsec and generally easier to usurp the existing canal while the chuckle heads in DC and SouthCom sit around obliviously stroking each others’ egos, working up the latest and greatest woke policies and taking pay-offs from the very same inscrutables.
Happy New Year…All who are Going to Transition…To 2025…AD
Yes…Another Period of New World Orders…Fully Prepped and Planned For
Long Ago For The Far East… All of Asia…Roads of Transistion..Transfer to The Middle East….The New World Order of Europe ..Russia..The Baltics..
Now…The Expansion Must Stop in all of the Americas. And Panama Canal…Security
Agreements…Strong Borders…a New Pacific Alliance. To Face The Old World Orders…
Its Transistion Time…All Over…Self Government and NOT a One World Government
As Long as There are Star Ship Troopers…On Earth.. The Burned Out Bunkers ..
Are For Those Left Behind…in that Last Transition..For Man Kind..Salvation..Indeed
Jim