Shackelford forgets US won the Cold War 34 years ago
Esteemed foreign affairs academic and Chicago Tribune columnist Elizabeth Shackelford omits 34 years of US Russia relations in her bizarrely titled op-ed ‘In a stunning comeback, Russia wins the Cold War’
Shackelford knows full well the Cold War ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. But in her effort to denigrate the Trump administration peace initiative to end the 3 year old Russo Ukraine war, she not only pretends it still exists, but that Trump is helping Russia win it.
Both propositions are ludicrous.
The reality is America and Russia are engaged in a hot war in which our Ukraine proxies are firing US weapons into Russia at the direction and encouragement of their American military handlers. Russia has sensibly warned that such conduct risks nuclear war, something that has been possible every one of the 1,095 days of this 3 yearlong failed US military adventure.
Trump is not helping Russia win this imaginary Cold War. He’s simply acknowledging reality. Unlike predecessor Biden, Trump realizes the US and its Ukraine proxies have lost the war to bring Ukraine into NATO to isolate Russia from the European political economy. He’s unwilling to spend another $175 billion in US treasure to incur another 500,000 dead Ukrainians. Most importantly, the impending peace will end the specter of nuclear war.
Yet, Shackelford decries Trump’s pledge to “return to normal diplomatic relations.”, charging that such a sensible move should not be “given for free." Not having any diplomatic contact with a nuclear nation we’re at war with, albeit using only Ukraine proxies, is the most reckless foreign policy imaginable.
Elizabeth Shackelford should be thankful Trump seeks to end this madness both provoked and prolonged by the Biden administration. When that happens, she should repeat her last line “Congratulations, Mr. Putin. We even helped you do it” with sincerity, not with sarcasm.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL
Elizabeth Shackelford: In a stunning comeback, Russia wins the Cold War
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s long-standing dictator, never got over the Union’s collapse at the end of the Cold War. He has called it the “
greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century and said he’d
reverse it if he could. It’s starting to look as though Putin’s decades-old grudge might just pay off, as he sits on the sidelines and watches the United States do the work for him.
The most powerful country in the world, which was — for good reason — Putin’s biggest nemesis until only two months ago, is now rolling out the red carpet for him, parroting his talking points, chastising and weakening his adversaries, and blaming his victims for his offenses. The United States has brushed
Russia’s war against the West under the rug and switched teams. What is even more worrying is that President Donald Trump seems either unaware or unconcerned that Putin’s plan is to weaken the United States too. After all, damaging our closest allies and doing our enemy’s bidding don’t make us stronger.
Take the so-called peace negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Even before they began, Trump and his team handed Putin concession after concession for nothing in return. First, they single-handedly ended Putin’s international isolation. Russian state television was
giddy watching Trump’s team undo years of the American-led effort to make Putin a
pariah for invading Ukraine and other efforts to undermine democracy and state sovereignty in Europe and beyond. Trump agreed that he and Putin would visit each other’s countries, return to
normal diplomatic relations and even pursue joint economic ventures. These are valuable diplomatic offers given for free.
Then Trump and his team gave away the two vital bargaining chips of Ukraine’s possible NATO membership and recovering stolen territory. Trump even suggested Putin had a rightful claim to it, saying that Russia “
fought for that land” and “lost a lot of soldiers,” and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get any of it back. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated these points just ahead of a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, saying both NATO membership and returning to prewar borders were unrealistic goals.
Speaking to reporters later, Trump had the gall to blame the victim, saying Ukraine “should have never started it.”
Russian politicians and state media were thrilled to hear the U.S. president backing their insulting and obvious lies. Treating Ukraine like some vanquished aggressor, Trump demanded half of its natural resources revenue as “payback” (not in return for future guarantees). That would be a higher gross domestic product share than
Germany’s reparations after World War I and leave Ukraine a vassal state.
Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator and repeated Moscow’s demands that Ukraine hold elections before any peace is finalized — an absurd idea in an active war zone, but one that plays directly into Putin’s hands for the opportunity to sow chaos and division in the country he hopes to consume.
The Trump team hasn’t limited its animosity to Ukraine, though. It has adopted Putin’s talking points on all of Europe. At the Munich Security Conference, an annual convening on international security, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told our European allies that they — not Russia or China — were their own biggest enemy.
Calling it the threat “from within,” Vance lectured European leaders about suppressing free speech and regulating social media. Coming from an administration
banning words such as “gender” and “oppression” from all government publications and punishing a news outlet for using the internationally recognized name of the
Gulf of Mexico, the accusation is rich indeed.
But the examples he touted made clear that he sought maximum freedom for only the least democratic actors. Vance criticized Germany for
ostracizing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has used Nazi slogans and been designated an
extremist group. He also scolded Romania for annulling elections that were targeted by “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks.” After all, unregulated social media are the premier tool of Russia’s propaganda machine.
Russia has scored some major wins in the U.S. homeland too, lest you think Putin is only using America to weaken others. Russia has long stoked the
anti-vaccination movement in America to undermine our public health, so having leading vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of America’s Health and Human Services Department is a huge Kremlin win. But Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence is an even bigger one, for now the chief spy in America is a
Moscow darling who has blamed NATO for Russia’s aggression and frequently shared
bizarre Russian conspiracies and anti-American propaganda. Whether witting or unwitting, her worldview has been shaped by
Russian disinformation for years. In normal times, she wouldn’t even qualify for a basic security clearance.
It isn’t hard to see what’s happening, but it is hard to comprehend why so many American political leaders are perfectly OK with it. In a world where the United States is aligned with Russia and against Europe, Russia wins, and we lose. Autocracy wins, and democracy loses.
Congratulations, Mr. Putin. We even helped you do it.
