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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   1456 thread views

Transnational Thursday for February 27, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Do you still stand by this comment of yours from a year ago?

Given how hard the US right is now pulling for "1. feed Ukraine to Putin 2. ???? 3. PROFIT!" - it's hard to blame Zelensky for betting on the other side. He has people's lives at stake. If sucking up to whatever Western weirdo is what helps to get weapons to save a thousand of Ukrainian lives - worth it thousand times over. I mean, the US red tribe can't be both "fuck all those guys over the border" and then be wondering "why those guys over the border suck up to Democrats?!" Because that's their only option, if the right says upfront they want nothing to do with it.

How was this all ever going to be anything else than an utter disaster? How is him "sucking up to whatever Western weirdo" even different in any way from this big public political fuckup, considering that both obviously stem from the exact same attitude? Even if this fuckup somehow never happened, wasn’t it a bit unwise in his position to bank on the Democrats winning both the presidency and the senate in 2024?

wasn’t it a bit unwise in his position to bank on the Democrats winning both the presidency and the senate in 2024

Yes, it was. He should have started making peace with Trump (including sucking up to him, yes, if necessary) months ago, preferably before the elections, when it was clear he has a good chance to win. As I said, there was a lot of chances for that - Trump's government is full of ex-Democrats that switched sides, and he has absolutely no problem with them, if anything, he's proud of accepting people who previously opposed him. Instead, Zelensky chose to bet on antagonizing Trump and relying on anti-Trump forces in US and Europe, likely hoping they would support him out of pure spite if not anything else. I think it is extremely unwise strategically. Maybe it stems from the same attitude, but one has to change when circumstances change.

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