Donald Trump has one thing right about the war in Ukraine: the sooner the killing stops, the better. Done right — a fair and lasting peace — this would be good for Ukraine, the U.S., our allies in Europe and ordinary Russians, if not Vladimir Putin and his murderous circle. But that doesn’t mean we should seek peace at any price.
What Trump doesn’t seem to understand: just how cunning and aggressive an adversary he’s facing. In fact, it’s not clear he understands Putin is an adversary, intent on exalting and expanding Russia at the expense of the West, which he views as an implacable enemy, to be vanquished by any means necessary, including not only brutal conquest but treachery, deceit and all the other underhanded tactics he perfected as a career KGB agent. It’s also apparently lost on Trump that Putin is playing him for a fool, flattering, manipulating and pretending he wants to be America’s friend.
So what is the best approach to ending the war?
