What Ukraine Needs and Deserves From the United States Will Never Be Achieved as Long as Trump is in Office

The Huff Post: Trump Mocked as he Falls for Putin's Flattery

Here's what we know.  Trump claims the meeting with Putin in Alaska "produced great progress."  Translated into plain English, from the normal pathological lying that is Trump's way ot expressing himself, that means we do not have a peace deal, and that he very likely gave away strategic advantages without getting anything in return.  The general consensus, even in conservative media, seems to be that this was a waste of time and Putin didn't give any ground.  That's typical of the way US-Russia meetings have gone under Trump, and there's no reason to expect more from this, the most corrupt, and incompetent idiot ever to have served as President of the United States.   

What we saw today was more of what we have seen since the man first became President of the United States in January, 2017.  Incompetence.  Ignorance.  A complete and total failure when it comes to having the preparation and the ability to negotiate.  Trump is a phony, a strutter and a poser, and not a diplomat who knows how to use his advantages in a negotiation.  His goal isn't peace, or the best interests of the United States, it is to make himself look good and see if he can make a buck in the process.  And this embarrassment happened on American soil.  

The biggest problem with this summit, and the reason it was doomed to failure from the start, was that Ukrainian President Vlodomir Zelenskyy was not included.  That failure is evidence of a level of incompetence that we have rarely seen from an American President in foreign policy.  Frankly, the summit was a hastily concieved event designed to distract the media from its focus on Trump's close, intimate involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.   

Proof, you want?  OK.  Wake up first, and then take a look around.  Proof is everywhere, so go back to sleeping under your rock, idiot. 

Ukraine Deserves Much More From the United States

How is it that any American born and raised in the freedom we enjoy in this country, and take for granted, doesn't have the ability to understand what is at stake in Ukraine?  There had to be a colossal failure somewhere, education, family and upbringing, to create the kind of selfishness that does not comprehend the kind of freedom we enjoy has come to us at a very high price.  How it is that any American can not see this, see what is happening in Ukraine, even without understanding the long, dark, history of that part of Europe, and not support the struggle of the Ukrainian people as they sacrifice for their own freedom is beyond me.  

The United States has made itself the world's superpower, not by accident, but by choice.  Whether or not that is consistent with the values we have promoted as a nation, it is the way we have chosen to deal with the rest of the world.  And there has not been any place where we've put a bookmark in anything we have done, and set democracy on the back burner in favor of anything else, in spite of our own political stupidity in electing the incompetent, inept, demented Trump because we have allowed billionaires to buy our elections.  

Ukraine has struggled to free itself from the terrible oppression and sucking dry of its natural resources by Russia for most of its existece.  It's geography, which include flat, fertile, moist plains that have the seasonal ability to grow most of the food Russia needs to survive, and its location along the strategic Black Sea coast, which is Russia's main ice-free access to the Atlantic Ocean, have given it the disadvantage of having suffered under Russian domination, Czarist or Communist, both totalitarian, for much of its existence.  So when the opportunity afforded itself, and the Soviet Union collapsed, the areas that are part of the historic territory of Ukraine united under a democracy for the first time in over a thousand years.  

So when the rarest of rare opportunities came for the Ukrainian people to declare independence on August 24, 1991, they did it.  The boundaries of the country reflect all areas where the majority of the population affirmed the declaration by referendum, and this was followed by recognition of 68 countries before the end of 1991.  What occurred then is therefore legal, and recognized, establishing a border around a country that is entitled to exist independently, and whose sovereignty should be defended by other countries including the superpower United States.  

The United States needs to take the lead in establishing a just peace by pressuring Russia to accept a treaty that includes the following: 

1. The restoration of all territory within the boundaries of Ukraine established on August 24, 1991, including the Donbas, and the Crimea to the Ukrainian national government.  
2. The recognition, by Russia, of Ukraine's sovereignty, and of its independence, which includes its right to pursue membership in the NATO alliance.
3. Resolution of all of the issues regarding access of the Russian navy to Ukraine's Black Sea ports, including Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. 
4. The return of all war prisoners, along with the Ukrainian civilians, mostly children, who have been kidnapped and spirited off into Russia. 
5. Reparations equal to the amount of war damage inflicted on Ukrainian property during the war.
6. A treaty establishing permanent peace between Russia and Ukraine.   

Ukraine suffered much damage and experienced almost four years of Nazi occupation during World War 2.  Some Ukrainians were sympathetic toward the Germans, seeing them as liberators, understandably, considering they had been under Russian domination for hundreds of years.  But they learned, most of them, that the Nazis were not liberators, they were oppressors.  And sometimes experiences like that provide experiences for nations to learn how to adapt themselves, and how to secure their own freedom.  One of the things that has become obvious since Ukraine became an independent country is that the freedom they've experienced is extended to the citizens of the country who are ethnic Russians, Poles, Jews, or any of a dozen other ethnicities that, because of the region's history, live within its boundaries. 

So this is only fair that the world should help Ukraine provide this kind of freedom to its citizens.  Their geography should be to their own benefit, not to their demise.  And it is mostly the role of the United States to accomplish this.  That's not something we are likely to do as long as the incompetent, inept, demented Trump is President.