Anyone who was even remotely paying attention knew that if former President Donald Trump got elected on Nov. 5, a ceasefire in Ukraine would soon follow. Trump of course was elected, and thankfully, that ceasefire is now on its way.
But it is a ceasefire that is tragically coming more than two years too late. In September, The Wall Street Journal ran a piece titled, “One Million Are Now Dead or Injured in the Russia-Ukraine War.” An obscene figure the Pentagon has echoed.
If one were to extrapolate from that number from the time a ceasefire was first advanced — and mysteriously scuttled — 32 months ago, then one could estimate that this ceasefire will come too late to save an additional 750,000 soldiers and innocent men, women and children killed or wounded in that gruesome war.
One story of the “scuttled” and “sabotaged” ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia ran in The Guardian in April of this year under the headline: “Did Boris Johnson really sabotage peace talks between Russia and Ukraine? The reality is more complicated.”
The article highlights the “poorly understood but consequential peace negotiations that played out between Russia and Ukraine in the spring of 2022 over ending the conflict. These negotiations — held predominantly in Istanbul — have become a focus for critics of the war in the US, who often argue that the west, and particularly then British prime minister, Boris Johnson, sabotaged these negotiations and prevented a successful ceasefire. Vladimir Putin would go on to make a similar argument in his now infamous interview with Tucker Carlson.”
Johnson has called the reports “nonsense,” while the Biden administration has danced around the issue and the negotiations. Of course, Biden and family have been dancing around the subject of Ukraine for a decade. Knowing that, it is important to note two very important and deeply curious questions. Both of them arise from when President Joe Biden was vice president in the Barack Obama administration.
First, what role did the Obama White House and State Department play in the overthrow of the legitimately elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014? There are many news reports and columns addressing that question. One of particular interest was published by the CATO Institute in August of 2017, long before the invasion, titled, “America’s Ukraine Hypocrisy.”
Second, we come to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s actions in that country. It must be remembered that in April of 2014 — just two short months after Russia-allied Yanukovych was overthrown — Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas holding company. Two years after that, then-Vice President Biden threatened — all on video — to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine unless a top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was fired. By a strange coincidence, Shokin had been leading an investigation into Burisma’s owner.
Back in 1939, Winston Churchill described Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” With regard to what is going on in Ukraine today — as well as what was orchestrated in the country in 2014 — it might make sense to update Churchill’s quote to say of Ukraine: “It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma … shoved down a rabbit hole and then set on fire.” There seem to be a great many questions some very powerful people don’t want answered under any circumstances.
The biggest “mystery” is, why some do not want to stop the almost instantly stoppable killing in Ukraine. Another mystery is why some were so anxious to lead the world to the edge of World War III. Another is why some want no accountability for the hundreds of billions sent into Ukraine. And the last “mystery” is why so many in the media and in “leadership” positions in the U.S., the United Kingdom and France have deliberately ignored or downplayed the horrific casualty counts in Ukraine?
Since day one, this war has stunk to high Heaven. Three men instantly opposed it while warning of the ultimate horror it could spawn — Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Three men who consistently sought to save the lives of the Ukrainian people; three men who consistently questioned the motives behind the war; and three men who were consistently ignored and smeared by many in the liberal media as well as those cheerleading for the Ukrainian people to march into the teeth of the Russian war machine.
Earlier this week, while commenting on the collapse of the government in Syria, Trump once again addressed the tragedy in Ukraine.
“There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place,” he said. “They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever. … Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians. There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse.”
Trump is right today to articulate that, just as he, Vance and Kennedy, have been right to issue warning after warning for the last almost three years.
There is going to be a ceasefire. There was always going to be a ceasefire. Except now, Ukraine will be in a much worse position because it has lost dramatically more territory since the first ceasefire was contemplated.
Worst of all, hundreds of thousands of more men, women and children have been needlessly killed or maimed because “leaders” from the West wanted to continue to play a board game from the safety of their offices thousands of miles away from the battlefield using those men, women and children as cheap, disposable, pawns.
Enough with “leaders”, “experts” and profiteers sending young people to their deaths.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.
