<\/p>\n
Submitted by Renee Parsons<\/p>\n
As the Ukraine war lurches closer to WW III, President Donald Trump promised to end the Ukraine war upon his inauguration.\u00a0 <\/span>However, now with an Alaskan summit in the wings, the President continues to confuse himself as a \u2018peace president<\/i>\u2019 without achieving peace in Ukraine, with no criticism on Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza, unwarranted attacks on the Houthis\u00a0 <\/span>and still defines Iran as an adversary. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although Trump\u2019s August 6th Executive Order bewildering entitled \u201cAddressing Threats to the United States by the Government of the Russian Federation<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u201d <\/i>has not impeded his proposal to host a meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin. \u00a0 <\/span>The EO cites \u201cactions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation <\/i>continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy<\/i><\/span> of the United States.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s policy of Government by Executive Order has assumed its predominant role displacing the once historic if tainted Congressional legislative action, this Order focuses on the \u201cimportation into the United States of certain products of Russian Federation origin, including crude oil; petroleum; and petroleum fuels, oils, and products of their distillation<\/i>\u201d while specifying it \u201cnecessary and appropriate to <\/i>impose an additional\u00a0ad valorem\u00a0duty on imports of articles of India<\/i><\/span>, which is directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n There was no explanation on how the import of Russian oil to India threatens US national security and foreign policy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Trump\u2019s position that any country buying Russian oil will be tariffed with secondary sanctions includes China which is busily unloading<\/span><\/a> its billions of dollars worth of American investments.<\/p>\n Despite the EO distraction, Trump announced on Truth Social<\/span><\/a> that he would meet with Russian President Vladmir Putin on August 15th<\/sup><\/span> in Alaska.\u00a0 <\/span>In his win the Nobel Peace Prize fervor, the \u201cpeace president\u201d lost sight of his promise to end the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n In lieu of an agreement with Trump demanding a Russian ceasefire or risk new secondary sanctions, Trump chose an Alaskan off ramp for Ukraine.<\/p>\n While there appeared to be no specific agenda or identified preconditions, Putin\u2019s interest lies in improving bilateral relations with a restart of the Start Agreement<\/span><\/a> as well as\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cstrategic co-operation,<\/span><\/a>\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>yet presumably discussion of the Ukraine war will be front and center.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With personal motivation as a driving force, Trump has belatedly realized\u00a0 <\/span>that in order to win a Peace Prize, it would be helpful to do some peace-making rather than bomb Houthi and Iranian civilians. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s intention that \u201cthere\u2019ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>is indicative that there may be a brick wall awaiting the President who remains personally aloof from the Russian twelve point agenda<\/span><\/a> for Ukraine which has been clear and unequivocal since the Special Military Operation began in February\u00a0 <\/span>2022. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n No surprise that Russia will not support territorial concessions as the four oblasts are internationally Constitutional as well as Russian dominated by language and population.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Russia\u2019s control of the battlefield negates Ukraine on the peace agreement as not subject to its approval as there is nothing new in Putin\u2019s proposals as they have been public since February 2022.\u00a0 <\/span>In other words, the entire Donbas region will remain integral to Russia. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While Ukraine President Zelensky is not attending the meeting, <\/i>the reality that Russia has prevailed in the Ukraine conflict, the Trump neo-cons continue to provide funding and weapons.<\/p>\n If the Alaska meeting occurs as scheduled, Trump has all the authority he needs to bring the war to an end as the self-absorbed Europeans vested interest in NATO\u2019s expansion will collapse; no longer able to justify its existence.<\/p>\n Trump is consumed with an unwavering desire to be acknowledged by the Noble Peace Price despite his avoidance of the genocide in Gaza, Trump\u2019s desire for brilliant news headlines boasts that he single-handedly brought an end to the war.<\/p>\n The meeting serves a historic commemoration that Alaska was sold to the United States for $7.2 million by Russia in 1867 as a strategic move by Catherine the Great protecting Russia\u2019s borders and its sovereignty.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n As if all that were not enough to fret about, there is currently a sort-of revival of the INF Treaty which the Trump Administration withdrew from in 2019. \u00a0 <\/span>At about that time, I wrote an essay entitled \u201cAmerican Presidents Renege<\/i><\/span><\/a> on Agreement with Russia Opening its Border to NATO<\/i>\u201d which articulated exactly what the title described.<\/p>\n That article included a summary of how Trump\u2019s then-foreign policy advisor John Bolton made an unscheduled trip to Moscow to inform Russian President Vladimir Putin that the \u00a0 <\/span>US was withdrawing from the Treaty.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What was uncertain at the time was whether Bolton had made the trip to Moscow at Trump\u2019s order with INF withdrawal on the agenda or whether he made the trip withdrawing from the INF on his own accord.\u00a0 <\/span>That question remains although an educated guess is that even if Trump was aware of Bolton\u2019s purpose in Moscow, Trump probably remained oblivious to the precise consequences of US withdrawal from the Treaty.<\/p>\n Here is a bit of that original article:<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0<\/i>Intermediate Nuclear Forces<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0(INF) Treaty was signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan in 1987 in Reykjavik, Iceland eliminating thousands of missiles that would potentially have carried nuclear warheads.\u00a0 To Gorbachev and Reagan\u2019s credit, the INF abolished an entire category of nuclear weapons while allowing first-hand observers of missile destruction and on-site verification as part of Reagan\u2019s \u2018trust but verify\u2019\u00a0motto.<\/i><\/p>\n By 2019, President Donald Trump announced that he was suspending compliance with the Treaty and cited development of a prohibited missile by Russia while Putin countered that the US anti ballistic system in Europe which was within striking distance of Moscow could be used for offensive purposes.\u00a0 The Treaty ended a superpower build up in Europe as it banned ground launched missiles with a range of up to 3400 miles.<\/i><\/p>\n In October, 2018, US national security advisor John Bolton arrived for\u00a0<\/i>two days of talks<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0with Russian officials who called the INF withdrawal as \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201cshowing a lack of wisdom\u201d as a \u201cmistake.\u201d\u00a0 Known to be\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>belligerent<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the Russians and arms control agreements, Bolton was also to meet with Russian\u00a0<\/i>Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov<\/i><\/b>\u00a0and Secretary to the Russian Security Council\u00a0<\/i>Nikolai Patrushev<\/i><\/b>\u00a0as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin who was looking for \u2018clarification\u2019\u00a0on US intentions.<\/i><\/p>\n In response, Putin denied any violation of the INF and announced\u00a0<\/i>suspension of\u00a0 Russian<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0involvement in the Cold-war era INF Treaty to pursue a new generation of hypersonic missiles.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n ***<\/i><\/p>\n What we know today is that the Russians, never a people to sit on their haunches meditating their next step, developed, in the absence of the INF, a hypersonic technology which led to the devastating Oreshink missile system<\/span><\/a> authorized by the Russian government in November, 2024.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What we know today is that Scott Ritter was the first INF Inspector on the ground in Russia when the Treaty was implemented in 1988. \u00a0 <\/span>Ritter says that the \u2018dumbest thing in the world\u201d <\/i>was to get out of the INF as it was a \u2018pure treaty<\/i>\u2019 because it benefitted both sides. \u00a0 <\/span>Withdrawal of the INF encouraged Russia to take the hypersonic Oreshnik step.\u00a0 <\/span>Ritter knows its capabilities and its potential horror, inside and out like no other American.<\/p>\n Described as a \u2018game changer<\/i>,\u201d an intermediate range ballistic missile that travels at ten times the speed of sound, is impossible to intercept with an unpredictability to maneuver in the atmosphere, that easily bypasses all existing air defense systems and has the capacity to blanket all of Europe including its cathedrals at risk.<\/p>\n