Worth Reading: Trump’s Ukraine plan: Realism mercifully returns to Washington, by Leon Hadar The scandal isn’t Trump’s plan—it’s the US policy elite’s refusal to pursue diplomacy. Nov 25.
https://asiatimes.com/2025/11/trumps-ukraine-plan-realism-mercifully-returns-to-washington/
Given continual brainwashing by corporate media on Russia/Ukraine, most Americans are in the dark as to how the war started. A year ago I gave a talk at USC during which I used the following ten slides. (The entire lecture is at: https://raymcgovern.com/2024/10/23/the-truth-about-ukraine/).
Let me call your particular attention to the last two slides I used. Professor John Mearsheimer has the kind of reputation that comes of having been right (unlike most of his professional professor pundit peers). He is the informal Dean of the “Realism” school of International Relations and typically, got the Ukraine conflict correct from the start:
Sept 2014: “Why Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault” (Foreign Affairs)“US/NATO now face choice on Ukraine. They can exacerbate hostilities w/ Russia & devastate Ukraine or work to create a prosperous but neutral Ukraine.”
May 2023: “Putin invaded Ukraine with great reluctance. I do not think he had any other options. He was deeply committed to the Minsk agreement so that he would not have to invade.”
The last slide is on the lighter side; a gift for Thanksgiving.
What you didn’t know about Ukraine & were afraid to ask. Putting the “28 Points” in the context of the past decade. Trump now grasps reality at the front, will honor promises in Alaska. Zelensky is left with no cards, except the wild-card jokers in Europe.
BREAKING on Ukraine-Russia: Putin describes the “28-points” Witkoff-Dmitriev paper as “updated version of the Alaska understandings which were “paused due to Ukraine’s rejection.” Putin: “I believe it could also form the basis of a final peace settlement.”
Blatant corruption in Ukraine. Will the issue bring an end to Zelensky? Can flexible, John Yoo-type “lawyers” use their imagination to describe murder on the high seas as something other than a war crime? Let’s get Adm. Alvin Holsey to tell us why he quit.
Graham Fuller and I apply our collective 120 years of watching Russia to what’s going on in and around Ukraine and Venezuela. I note the crucial, bottleneck role of the US national security adviser, particularly when that person is also Secretary of State.
The overriding reality for Putin: Trump is mercurial, impossible to predict. So, for God’s sake, do not provoke him! Has nuke codes. Remain calm/conciliatory. He might override the Russophobes. Moral turpitude: from underage girls to the rules of Nuremberg
