He's got it Wrong.

 I Break Down Every Key Moment of Trump & Zelenskyy’s Fight (to PROVE who’s really right)

I don't always agree with Paul Warburg's opinions, but I find his analysis of the Ukraine conflict informative. His take on the Oval Office Meeting misses the mark. 

I support military aid for Ukraine -- even when Biden "paused" it in the early days of his administration, I thought it should continue. To me, that pause was like ringing the lunch bell for Putin.

I am surprised that people who shrugged off Russia's Crimea grab are such war hawks now. I'm also aware that the longer the war lasts and the aid flows into an impoverished nation, the more people become dependent on the new status quo. This is not a criticism of Ukrainians; it's a criticism of the human race (in the meeting, Zelensky made a comment that kinda serves as proof). One thing Trump's plan has right: you have to offer them a better future. Also, no one voted for Trump because he would give security guarantees to Ukraine (quite the opposite). He's gone about as far as he can go in that direction.

I watched the whole thing and never got the feeling that President Zelenskyy wanted to sign the agreement (or even wanted to be there). If you were hiring a partner for peace, he would fail the interview. Also, when he handed President Trump those photos, it was obvious to me that he didn't tell Trump in advance. If I'm right, that was a big mistake and awfully rude. What I saw was a guy who wanted to maneuver Trump into saying something, out of politeness and in front of the press, that would be useful later.

If Zelensky only gets pre-screened questions from reporters, that's not Trump's fault (Trump was called a Russian spy daily for a couple of years). It is laughable to suggest that a "rude" question would throw Zelensky off his game. Was it done so Trump could say something nice about him later? Gee, what planning!

West Winging It

FULL Body Language Analysis of Trump and Zelenskyy's MELTDOWN

During the turn of the Century, The West Wing was a popular political Comedy/Drama about the Presidency of the United States of America. It was fiction, so the progressive president (Martin Sheen) could come out looking a little better and his conservative foes a little worse than might be the case in, say, the real world.

President Zelensky of Ukraine started his political life with a similar program. You get to write the script. The clever things you say and do ultimately work out in your favor -- regardless of the mid-show hilarious hiccups. Unfortunately, starring in a "West Wing" style show is poor training for sitting in the almost sacred setting (for most Americans) of the West Wing Oval Office while dealing with President Donald Trump. During that meeting, he wanted commitments from Trump in public, in front of the world, that he couldn't get in private. Unfortunately, Zelensky wasn't writing the script.

Abraham Lincoln, during the Dark Days of the Civil War, said, "We must disenthrall ourselves." I read that as a fourteen-year-old boy and wondered what "disenthrall" meant.  To be enthralled was to be emotionally caught up in a book or a movie or a love affair. So, to "disenthrall" means to disengage your emotions and try to look at the situation you are in objectively. President Zelensky was not capable of doing that. Indeed, he wanted to "enthrall" Donald Trump and perhaps everyone else.

His inability to view the world objectively has set him up for failure. Hopefully, he will leave the scene soon and accept the gratitude of his grateful nation before that turns to loathing.

By and large, commentators assume that if Kamala Harris were President, the largess towards Ukraine would continue. Why? It was Biden's administration that pushed the war, largely as a part of their anti-Putin morality play (See Ukraine's Color Revolution, Hunter and Burisima, Trump's first impeachment, etc.). Democrats are the party of Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's "Russia-US Reset Button" (this after Russia took part of Georgia -- not the US state). After that little show, Putin grabbed Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and Obama shrugged. In its first days in 2021, the Biden Administration stopped the arm shipments to Ukraine that Trump began (they wanted to engage with Russia diplomatically). That was like ringing the lunch bell for Vladimar Putin. He geared up for war, not diplomacy.

If Harris had won on Nov. 5, the American Media would have started the distancing process on Nov 6. It would be time for "a new look." It would go on from there, and it would be ugly. There would be story after story of Ukrainian corruption. Many of these stories might actually be true (truth is not a priority in a political operation). Why would this happen? Because our involvement in the War in Ukraine is a political loser. Why are the "experts," who shrugged off the Crimea invasion when they were in power, war hawks now? Why did they manipulate Zelensky into confronting Trump in the Oval office to effectively repudiate the very agreement he was there to sign? It's part of the political operation. They want to regain power. Blowing up the peace deal hurts Trump and helps them. Any leader who can "disenthrall himself" would see that and avoid the trap.

Zelensky did confirm what I wrote about in the Post "Ukraine's Thriving Enterprise." He said the Ukrainian people are actually doing all right despite the hardships of war. This is why Trump is offering them an alternative prosperous future. We can get rare earths from our 51st state -- Greenland, Canada, maybe Cuba. Who wants to be first?