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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/13/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-ukraine-us-europe>
"Donald Trump’s appeasement of Vladimir Putin makes Neville Chamberlain look
like a principled, courageous realist. At least Chamberlain was trying to
prevent a major European war, whereas Trump is acting in the middle of one.
Trump’s “Munich” (synonymous in English with the 1938 deal in which Britain and
France sold out Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany) comes on the eve of the big
security conference in today’s Bavarian capital, where his emissaries will meet
western allies. That Munich security conference must be the beginning of a
decisive European response, learning from our own tragic history in order to
avoid repeating it.
The next step Trump proposes is in effect a new “Yalta” (referring to the
February 1945 US-Soviet-UK summit in the Crimean resort of Yalta, which has
become synonymous with superpowers deciding the fate of European countries over
their heads). In this case, his proposal is that the US and Russia should
decide the fate of Ukraine with marginal if any involvement of Ukraine or other
European countries. But this time the occupants of the White House and the
Kremlin should meet first in Saudi Arabia, then in their respective capitals,
while it seems the actual Yalta, in the Crimea, is to be ceded to Russia. For
in the brave new world of Trump and Putin, might is right and territorial
expansion is what great powers do, be it Russia to Ukraine, the US to Canada
and Greenland – or China to Taiwan.
All historical analogies have their limits and those with “Munich” and “Yalta”
have been overused. But here, for once, they do feel apposite – so long as we
highlight differences as well as similarities."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
