There is an old Cockney expression, “Queer (strange) as a Clockwork Orange.” In today’s political environs, I imagine the aim of the government is to serve and protect its people, and to function like clockwork. The orange describes the bizarre shade of Man Tan blazoning our dear leader and self-anointed king. And who elected Elon Musk to be his sidekick?
The Trump-Musk putsch has a stated goal of deconstructing the administrative state. Under the guise of efficiency, Elon Musk has fired federal employees and inspectors general who maintain quality assurance. They have shown no regard for the purpose or the necessity of the work done by those people. They only seem interested in seizing the levers of power of the government by any means and without regard to the rule of law.
As for our place on the international stage, Trump has shattered our relationship with Ukraine by proposing appeasement to Putin even before negotiations began in Riyadh. Secretary of State Rubio and his team were sent to negotiate a peace settlement with Russia. However, no seat at the table was offered to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. All of our European allies are mortified by this development.
America has never changed sides in the middle of a war. Trump flagrantly lied by saying Zelenskyy was responsible for starting the war in Ukraine when it was Russia who invaded Ukraine three years ago. As if spouting Russian propaganda isn’t enough, he accused Zelenskyy of being an unelected dictator.
History has shown that appeasement didn’t work when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. Our allies were left out of Trump’s unilateral proffer of a peace agreement, where Russia keeps the captured territory and Ukraine doesn’t join NATO. Then Trump said he could have made the same deal to begin with and avoided the war. That is like showing your cards before the bets are in.
A poll of Americans shows that 81% do not trust Putin, 9% do, and 10% don’t know. Putin came into power vowing to re-establish the territorial empire of the now defunct Soviet Union. Only a fool would think he would stop with Ukraine. The Ukrainians put up a heroic defense against the Russian invasion. They fought a war with our help and have kept the Russians at bay for three years, when Putin boasted they could take over in three days.
Russia claims that they do not want a NATO country on their doorstep. NATO is a defensive alliance and it has never invaded another country. The only time Article 5 was invoked was after 9/11 and NATO countries helped the U.S. fight back against terrorists in the Middle East.
The Ukrainians have paid a steep price in death and destruction to defend their country against Russia. That is the same Russia that wants to attack the U.S. if they could. We owe Ukraine a debt of gratitude for standing against Putin’s aggression.
Don Hiddleson, Millcreek
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