King Donald pulls the plug on Ukraine

Muhammad Amin

Underlining the foolishness of entering into deals with the United States, King Donald Trump is preparing to ditch long-term ally Ukraine while making it easier for overseas commanders to attack perceived US enemies.

Following a brutish shouting match between Volodymir Zelensky and King Donald in the Oval Office Friday, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent cancelled a “economic deal” with Kyiv that some had described as financial blackmail.

Essentially, Trump last week took advantage of Ukraine’s dependency on US arms and money to fight Russia to winkle a deal that would have given US effective ownership of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.

While Zelensky was punting the deal Friday ahead of his meeting with King Donald in the White House, the later meeting went off the rails and devolved into a shouting match as Donald and his vice-king JD Vance took turns undermining the Ukrainian leader, accusing him of not being grateful enough for US assistance that they are now threatening to withhold.

They accused Zelensky of trying to renegotiate the deal after he expressed unhappiness with the deal that includes a peace deal with Russia.

Zelensky made the mistake of trying poker-style brinkmanship with Donald when the US king is holding all the cards. He said  the deal was not enough, insisting the ceasefire deal needed a security guarantee by the US.

“A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine. We’ve been fighting for three years, and Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side,” he said at the weekend after the Oval Office shouting match.

He said he was still ready to sign the minerals agreement as a “first step towards security guarantees”.

But after Friday’s blow-up in the West Wing, Bessent said its status was up in the air.

“I think we have to see if President Zelenskyy wants to proceed,” Bessent said. “What’s the use in having an economic agreement that’s going to be rendered moot if he wants the fighting to continue. President Trump wants a peace deal.”

Bessent said it was up to the EU to provide security guarantees, telling ABC “Well, look, I think the plan is for the European Union to provide this security, not NATO, the European Union,”

Amid concern over the UK King drifting closer to Russia, a number of European leaders have committed to ramping up defense spending. France and the United Kingdom have in recent weeks worked on a deal to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine after its war with Russia. But UK leader Keir Starmer said Sunday a U.S. backstop was essential for a true security guarantee.

While Donald was showing reticence in fighting in Ukraine, he was pulling out the stops controlling US military action abroad, drastically altering a Biden-era rule governing strikes against so-called terror targets. Ž

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a directive easing policy constraints and executive oversight on airstrikes and the deployment of commandos.

The directive gives US commanders greater freedom to decide whom to target while relaxing the multi-layered centralized control of the Biden era regarding airstrikes and raids by American special operation forces, US officials told CBS News.

The Al-Shabaab group in Somalia and the Ansarallah resistance movement in Yemen were discussed as potential targets of new strikes

Some officials and experts have expressed concerns that the changes could result in increased civilian casualties, with broader implications of expanded military engagement beyond traditional combat zones.

A 2023 study from the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute estimated that over 4.5 million people have died from wars launched by the US after September 11 2001.

The study estimates that between 906,000 and 937,000 people have been killed as a direct result of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia.

“These countries have experienced the most violent wars in which the US government has been involved in the name of counterterrorism since 2001,” the report highlights.

Moreover, 3.6 million people are estimated to have died indirectly from the effects of western wars, including economic collapse, food insecurity, destruction of public health facilities, environmental contamination, and recurring violence.