Geopolitical Shakeup, Russia Demands End To Sanctions, Etc.
It appears that the Wacky Warliberals—the assorted Neocons and Globalists of the West—advised their proxy Zelensky to walk into a buzz saw. The idea was to disrespect Trump on TV, make unreasonable demands, face him down. This was to be the climax of the Make More War diplomatic offensive, the serial trips of the vassal states to the White House, and they were apparently egged on by the disloyal opposition in the US. This was all coming from a fantasy world view of reality and, especially, of Trump.
Boy, were they wrong. No, there wasn’t an “ambush”. The full footage of what transpired at the Oval Office shows that Zelensky was the aggressor. But, that said, this whole strategy was a gift to Trump, allowing him to rally support for cutting off aid to Ukraine. This was a huge step forward for Trump’s peace offensive, because it makes normalization with Russia so much easier when America is no longer an outright co-belligerent against Russia. And, as I said yesterday, there seems to be no likelihood that that aid cutoff will be reversed—that would be, in effect, a return to proxy war and would probably end peace talks. That idea is strengthened by the fact that even as Zelensky claims to be ready to sign the rare earth deal, more US support is being rolled back.
Now, it seems, Trump has embraced the aid cut off to a new level. That new level may also be redefining NATO and Five Eyes. Let’s start with the amusing part.
Britain Outraged Over Vance's "Some Random Country" Comments
US Vice President JD Vance has sparked a row among allies after commenting about a potential European/UK-led peacekeeping force in Ukraine. His initial words came in a Fox News interview Tuesday wherein he made the case that the only security guarantees from America would come in the form a Trump's minerals deal, which has been stalled in the wake of Zelensky's Friday Oval Office blow-up with President Trump.
Vance said: "The president knows that if you want real US security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine."
And that's where the offending comments came: "That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years," he laid out.
He is being accused by top British officials and UK media of "disrespecting" British forces who closely assisted the US regime change wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. One former UK veterans minister branded him a "clown" who needs to "check his privilege" - as quoted in Britain's Sky News.
Veep Vance kinda walked that back, said he wasn’t specifically referring to France or Britain. The real point, though, is that no one in the US really cared—which is what Euros don’t seem to get. It’s not so much disrespect as simply the fact that Americans don’t see the point in continual war and want to fix their own country instead of going around breaking other countries at the behest of the British Crown or some other atavistic “special” relationship. And speaking of disrespect … we’ll get to that in a bit.
So, in the upshot to the Oval Office Rumpus, Trump cut off military aid. We’re just now learning what that means:
Disclose.tv @disclosetv
JUST IN - U.S. cuts off intelligence sharing with Ukraine — FT
UPDATE - CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirms the U.S. paused weapons shipments and intelligence to Ukraine in the fallout of the meeting in the Oval Office.
6:20 AM · Mar 5, 2025
Philip Pilkington @philippilk
Ukraine is now fighting blind. The war is over. Either they stop fighting or they get steamrolled by the Russians in a few weeks - at most.
Also:
US Cuts Intelligence Sharing With Ukraine On Heels Of Halting Arms Flow
But there’s more. The Brits think they’re being disrespected, but respect is a two way street. What part of respect leads a small nation to try to pull off an electoral coup against a much larger and more powerful country—and then expect the intended victim to pretend nothing happened? Actions have reactions, consequences:
This is probably the beginning of the end of Five Eyes. The Trump crowd are all convinced that the British weaponised this stuff against them in the US election, especially 2016. The Americans will likely dump it and replace any lost capacities themselves.
The world order is changing. Trump understands that and is determined to get America out ahead of events.
Philip Pilkington @philippilk
European leaders won’t understand. The US is rolling up its foreign policy. The Empire is over. The Trump admin is trying to rebuild the ailing Republic. Americans don’t care about the current European obsession with conflict and war - historically they’ve always hated it.
Other nations need to understand that. Come to think of it, Dems need to understand that, too.
Canada has joined Britain on the political death spiral. The two countries are entering into a complete fantasy space as both get flushed down the political toilet.
Quote
unusual_whales @unusual_whales
BREAKING: Ontario, Canada has banned all U.S.-based companies from government contracts, and has ended the province’s contract with Starlink, the Elon Musk-controlled satellite network.
Oh, Canada! You’ve got bigger problems than Elon Musk:
I’m being charged for responding to anti-Palestinian hate on X
Yves Engler: My 5 Days in Jail as Political Prisoner for Criticizing Israel
And, yes, I understand that America needs to wake up to its own similar problems. But at least we’re making a start. Like, removing sanctions on Hungary. What? You didn’t know that the US had sanctioned Hungary for being insufficiently pro-LGBTQwerty? Yep—that was another USAID regime change initiative:
Zoltan Kovacs @zoltanspox
[Hungarian] FM Péter Szijjártó announced that the U.S. government is fully open to reviewing and lifting the unjust retaliatory measures imposed on Hungary by the previous administration.
Philip Pilkington @philippilk
The sanctions imposed on Hungary by the Biden admin were the peak of liberal-imperial diplomacy. These sanctions had no functional goal. Their only aim was to force ideological conformity. The world is being liberated from liberal imperialism!
But now here’s something really interesting. Remember Elbridge “Bridge” Colby? I’ve been reading that he’s having a bit of a tough time getting confirmed to a top policy position at DoD, and I was puzzled. I didn’t follow up to find out why but I knew that Colby’s whole rep was built on being a China Hawk. So I just figured that would counter balance his Trumpian view of Russia and get him confirmed. It turns out that Colby has got religion—of a rather heretical sort—and that means that Trump must have some heretical views, too. Get a load of this:
Taiwan is not an 'existential' interest to U.S.: Elbridge Colby tells Senate confirmation hearing
-- Taiwan needs to spend 10% of GDP on defense
-- Japan should spend 3%
-- Conflict with China is not necessary
Taiwan should spend 10% of GDP on defense, Pentagon No. 3 pick Colby says
2/ “I’ve always said that Taiwan is very important to the United States. But as you said, it’s not an existential interest,” Colby said. “The core American interest is in denying China regional hegemony.”
Earlier in the hearing, Colby acknowledged that, “Losing Taiwan, Taiwan’s fall, would be a disaster for American interests.” But he said the U.S. military balance with China in the region has declined so drastically that a conflict with China risks decimating the American military.
This requires some pretty minimal between-the-lines reading. Is Taiwan ever going to spend 10% of GDP on its military? Please! Not an existential interest to the US? Of course not! How could it possibly be in American interests to roam the world getting into wars 3,000 miles or so away from home? OK, maybe there could be some exceptions, but land wars in Asia aren’t part of that.
This is very big. Essentially and in practical terms, when you cut to the chase, this looks like, Hey, the Chinese in China and the Chinese on Taiwan need to work this out together. America is not about to “decimate” its military for no definable reason. Not necessary. And as for “denying Chinese regional hegemony,” how does that work when we don’t want to risk decimation. Reading between the lines, this looks like a sea change in US policy.
Which brings us to the last bit of news. Russia is reportedly telling the US, Hey, normalization of relations is great, but ending illegal sanctions is part of that package. Which makes total sense:
Sanctions Have To Go, Kremlin Tells Trump
Russia has informed the Trump administration on Tuesday that any normalization of relations with the United States must be accompanied by the lifting of sanctions against Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Monday reports saying Trump has ordered options be drawn up to potentially give Russia sanctions relief amid ongoing direct talks to prepare for peace negotiations to end the Ukraine war.
"It is probably too early to say anything. We have not heard any official statements, but in any case, our attitude towards sanctions is well known, we consider them illegal," Peskov said.
"And, of course, if we talk about normalizing bilateral relations, they need to be freed from this negative burden of so-called sanctions."
Russia has won and will dictate terms. They view this as the end of decades of US led aggression against Russia, attempts to crush the Russian nation—not as Trump doing them a “favor”. Clearly Russia is telling Trump that talk is cheap. They want to see action.