The Russia-Ukraine End Game

That’s the beginning of what often gets called the “Pilgrims’ psalm,” because the psalmist goes on to describe a remnant of Israel who “went down to the sea in ships,” were buffeted by storms, cried out to the Lord to save them, and were rewarded when he “brought them to their desired destination.” (v.23-30)

All that by way of saying, Happy Thanksgiving! We have got our country back.

In my last message, I wrote about the Trump Effect on the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and China. Now Putin is joining that chorus of leaders welcoming the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

In brief televised comments on Thanksgiving day in Kazakhstan, Putin decried the “absolutely uncivilized methods used to battle against Trump up to and including an assassination attempt – and more than once.”

He added: “By the way, in my opinion, he is not safe now.” Putin may know something about Iranian plots the general public does not.

His real message to Trump was simple: I am not your enemy. He ended those brief comments by saying he was ready to talk with President Trump about Ukraine.

Just the day before Putin made those statements, Trump appointed Lieutenant General (ret.) Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Russia and Ukraine.

General Kellogg was deputy national security advisor during the entire Trump first term, and was one of the few White House survivors who remained on excellent terms with the once and future Commander in Chief.

I have had the honor of working under General Kellogg’s guidance at the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Center on policy toward Iran and Israel.

The co-chair of our center, John Ratcliffe, has been nominated by Trump to become CIA Director, while the co-chairs of AFPI itself, Linda McMahon and Brooke Rollins, have been nominated respectively to become secretary of education and secretary of agriculture.

General Kellogg recently co-authored a report with another former national security council staffer, Fred Fleitz, on how to end the war in Ukraine.

They concluded, as I have been saying for two years, that this was an unnecessary war, largely brought about by egregious mistakes by the Biden White House and State Department.

The whole post-Soviet security understanding was for Ukraine to become a nuclear disarmed buffer state between Russia and Europe, and later, NATO. Biden offering Ukraine NATO membership was literally like waving a red cape in front of a Miura bull.

It was dumb and got dumber and ultimately led to war.

Those missteps are continuing today, with Biden’s wild escalation of allowing Ukraine to use long-range US ATACMS missiles to strike deep into Russia, and just this week, the pathetic and dangerous statements from Bruno Kahl, the German intelligence chief.

Kahl told reporters that Russia’s use of unconventional warfare against NATO could eventually push NATO members to invoke Article 5, the mutual-defense clause of the NATO treaty. In other words, an all-out NATO war with Russia.

Putin wisely dismissed these efforts as attempts to “make Trump’s life more difficult” with Russia once he took office.

General Kellogg understands what got us here, including both Russia and Ukraine’s historical claims and grievances. He also understands, as does President Trump, that first there must be a ceasefire.

You will see much media huffing and puffing in the coming days and weeks about “barbaric” Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and other “outlawed” targets. You will hear much less about Ukraine’s efforts to hold onto Kursk and surrounding territory inside Russia.

What’s going on is very simple: both sides are preparing for the ceasefire they know will come two months from now, and are jockeying to control as much territory as possible for the negotiations.

So while painful, this is a good thing. As Churchill said, where possible, it is far preferable to “jaw-jaw” than “war-war.”

I discuss this, as well as left-wing media efforts to drive a wedge between President Trump and Elon Musk over China, and the surprising re-emergence of ISIS in northern Syria following the Israel-Hezbollah-Iran ceasefire in Lebanon, on this week’s Prophecy Today Weekend.

As always, you can listen live at 1 PM on Saturday on 104.9 FM or 550 AM in the Jacksonville, Florida, area, or by using the Jacksonville Way Radio app.

Yours in freedom.

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