Back in May of this year, while discussing the Ukraine-Russia war during a town hall telecast with CNN, former President Donald Trump confidently declared: “If I am President, I will have that war settled in one day. 24 hours.”
This past weekend, while on left-of-center “Meet the Press” on NBC, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to former President Trump’s belief that Trump “can’t manage this war.”
Really?
Pardon me, lazy, incurious, unprofessional liberal media, war-loving neo-cons, and those getting wealthy off the death and destruction in Ukraine, but I will side with former President Trump every single time on this issue.
To begin with, the argument has been made that had Trump remained president into a second term, this war never would have started in the first place. While one can never prove a negative, I strongly subscribe to that belief.
The same supposition attaches itself to the war now between Israel and Hamas. Would Iran – using its proxy army Hamas – have dared to attack Israel had Trump still been President? Again, we will never know, but logical arguments can outline why the answer would be “no.”
Tragically, the war between Russia and Ukraine did start and remains in full bloom. The stated rationale for those in favor of prosecuting this war is: “We need to save Ukraine and its people.”
How is that working out for you?
Some estimates – which much of the media goes out of its way to suppress – project that at least 750,000 Ukrainians have been killed in the war, with approximately 5 million having fled the country. Beyond the human toll, much of the Ukrainian infrastructure is being reduced to rubble.
So, is it really about “saving the people of Ukraine,” or is it more about using them as cheap, disposable pawns to be sacrificed in a proxy war against Vladimir Putin and Russia while enriching U.S. and U.K. defense contractors?
To his great credit, former President Trump has been against this war from the beginning.
Just over a year ago, during an appearance on 77 WABC radio, former President Donald J. Trump was asked by host John Catsimatidis what things “keep you up at night?” The former President quickly answered: “I think more than anything else, I think we could end up in World War III, and it could be all of the horrible things that took place in Ukraine.”
A few weeks after the war began, simply asking questions about alleged corruption in the Ukraine, off-shore bank accounts, fake news being disseminated by the Ukrainian leadership, flawed military strategies, billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars disappearing or being outright stolen, if regime change in Russia was the ultimate goal; or if Trump’s fear that the war could trigger a nuclear missile launch became akin to daring to question the lockdowns, masks, and vaccine mandates.
Official Washington, DC mantra on the subject seemed to be: “Display the Ukraine flag on your social media sites; ignore any “conspiracy theories” about your tax dollars being stolen or “tales” of corruption in Ukraine, and shut up.”
Regardless of that “go along to get along” strategy adopted by most of the media, the Democrats, academia, the neo-cons and several Republicans, Trump continued to wave one red flag after the other in opposition to the war.
In March of this year on his Truth Social site, the former President rhetorically screamed again: “This is the most dangerous time in our country's history. World War III is looming, like never before, in the very dark and murky background. “Leadership” is solely responsible for this unprecedented danger to the USA and the World. HOPELESS JOE BIDEN IS LEADING US INTO OBLIVION!!!”
And yet, the war goes on unabated.
There seems to be no more honest media or investigative journalists. As we have been seeing with the month-old war between Israel and Hamas, much of the media simply says: “As Hamas reports. As authorities in Gaza say.”
Rather than actually doing their job and finding the facts on the ground, they rubber stamp that which fits their liberal or biased narrative.
Much the same thing has been going on with Ukraine for two years. No honest media or investigative reporting. We are simply told: “As Zelensky says.” “As Ukraine reports.”
If one were looking for irrefutable facts, one of the most critical would be that several people in and out of the country of Ukraine are getting incredibly wealthy thanks to this war. To the tune of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Why would they want the money train to stop rolling?
There are a multitude of logical and pointed questions the corrupt media – as well as our own government – could be asking right now but refuse to do so for self-serving reasons. In the meantime, Ukrainians, by the thousands, continue to perish.
When it comes to the non-stop rhetoric put out by the president of Ukraine – who has suspended all elections to retain power -- I paraphrase William Shakespeare: “Methinks Zelensky doth protest too much.”
I do believe Trump could end this war. Why are so many people resistant to that noble goal?
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence.