13 February 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
This is a follow-up on my February 12th “Russia has now won the war in Ukraine.”
Trump said on February 12th, about Ukraine, it “may become Russian some day,” and that if Ukraine wants any additional assistance from the U.S., then first Ukraine will need to give America their most valuable natural resources,
https://www.instagram.com/yaglob.ru/reel/DF8Ni6ituEv/
“They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured, because we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars [on Ukraine], and … they may be Russians some day, … and … I want it [America’s money] back. And I told them that I want the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earth, and they have essentially agreed to do that.”
As-if THAT weren’t enough proof that America has thrown in the towel on the Obama-Biden U.S. war against Russia that’s being waged by Ukraine’s troops and U.S.-and-NATO (U.S. colonies or ‘allies’) weaponry in the battlefields of Ukraine (and now of Russia too), Trump’s new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth said on February 11th, “We are not sending U.S. troops into Ukrraine.” That’s at 49:19 in
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1MnGnwRbeONJO
In that same press conference, he repeatedly said that America’s main enemy is China, because its economy is growing far faster than ours is, and he said that the U.S. Defense Department’s chief target to harm or take over now is therefore that nation. The Department of Defense is actually the Department of Aggression — he said it, though not so succinctly as I just did here. (The press conference starts at 41:35 in that video and extends to 56:13.)
And THEN, on February 12th, the Department of ‘Defense’ headlined “Hegseth Calls on NATO Allies to Lead Europe's Security, Rules Out Support for Ukraine Membership”, and reported from Brussels at the 26th iteration of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (that’s where NATO policy on Ukraine is made), that Hegseth said not only that Ukraine will not become a NATO member-nation, but that if “troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article 5 [of the NATO treaty].” So, EVEN if other NATO member-nations will be sending troops to Ukraine, they will NOT be doing so as NATO-member nations and with America’s Article 5 (i.e., nuclear-weaponry) protections, but ONLY as nationals of their own nation, so that if Russia will consequently retaliate against that nation, no such retaliation would spark an Article 5 response (from any NATO nation). Any such fanatical anti-Russian European nation would be entirely on its own, NOT protected by the U.S.
UPDATE: Alexander Mercouris, at 4:50 here, says that Steve Witkoff, the person who made the breakthrough for Trump that produced the Gaza ceasefire, achieved also this breakthrough for Trump’s reversal on Ukraine.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
Finally ... 👍👍👍🔥🔥🔥
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/double-decker-special-hysteria-ignites?publication_id=1351274&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=y7h5a&utm_medium=email
I beg to differ.
If you read between the lines above, you’ll note Ukraine barely covered a fraction of the talk, which included artificial intelligence and a host of other geopolitical issues. Likewise, Trump’s guarded remarks in press statements afterwards also left much to be desired, for instance describing the only Ukraine-related ‘achievement’ of the talks being Putin acknowledging that ‘he would like to end the killing’.
This is the clear definition of reaching: Trump’s team is trying to sell the phone chat as a much larger leap of progress than it really was. The added declaration that Putin intends to meet Trump in Saudi Arabia was empty garnish, as no urgent date was set, and they were bound to meet at some point in the future anyway. The same goes for the timed release of “political prisoner” Mark Fogel, which was meant to dress up the occasion, to add grist to the narrative that Trump is making some big ‘headway’ with Russia—nothing of the sort; this is desperate trickery to mask the major failure of Trump’s braggadocio about swiftly ending the war.
In short: the talk was the perfunctory, basic exchange of pleasantries and customary political gestures, nothing more. If you read the actual quotes and soundbites from various Russian officials, it is clear that Russia is no closer to any real negotiations, and is merely indulging the US its moment in the limelight of ostensibly ‘leading the peace charge’. In fact, I believe Trump even said he offered Putin a temporary ceasefire, which was quickly swept under the rug after Putin declined.