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Why is it so important not to break kayfabe?
I agree with Trump and Vance that Zelenskyy is working against peace and deserved the dressdown. If this chastens him and leads to peace, any amount of incivility will be worth it. Ukrainian conscripts are still dying every day.
What peace proposal is there? Suppose they let Russia keep the land they've already annexed with the only concession to stop fighting (already a bad precedent). Then in a few months, after they're refreshed a bit, Russia comes up with some dumb pretext to attack the rest of Ukraine. What mechanism exists to stop them that time that does not exist right now? There's so much distrust I don't see why Ukraine would agree to this.
Without any durable security guarantees from the US, it doesn't seem like peace is tractable.
With Zelenskyy still in power, it seems unlikely that there will be one.
It is not the responsibility of the US to protect Ukraine, a country halfway around the world. I can understand Trump's exasperation with Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy is the one with his hat in his hand, asking for American blood and treasure. He should act like it. And yeah, the commando look is wearing thin.
The correct move for the US here is a large aid and weapons package that is conditional on a peace deal, and withdrawal if there is not. Perhaps the Europeans can step up, if they still want to prosecute the war under Zelenskyy.
But there should be no US security guarantees. In fact, these should be explicitly denied to prevent a repeat of misinterpretations of the Budapest Memorandum.
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