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2025-02-14 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Trump is furiously accused WW2-style 'appeasement' as MPs warn Britain must be ready to go to WAR with Russia - amid fears Ukraine is only the start for Putin
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Furious MPs today accused Donald Trump of 'appeasement' of Russia and warned Britain must be ready to go to war.

Politicians from across parties voiced alarm in the Commons after the US president's bombshell call with Vladimir Putin overnight.

Mr Trump and the Russian dictator had 'a lengthy and highly productive' phone conversation, during which they agreed that talks to end the conflict should start 'immediately'.

But any peace deal is expected to see Russia keep territory it has annexed since 2014, including the Crimean peninsula – a huge blow to Kyiv after three years of fighting for freedom. Ukraine joining Nato - an official policy of the alliance - has also been effectively ruled out.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump is demanding that European Nato powers commit to spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence - a level the US itself does not reach. The UK is one of the biggest spenders but has yet to set out a timetable to hit 2.5 per cent.

Speaking in Downing Street, Keir Starmer highlighted 'huge sacrifices' made by Ukrainians in the war. 'Nobody wants the conflict to continue... but we must make sure Ukraine is at the heart of it,' he said.

At a Nato meeting in Brussels this morning, Defence Secretary John Healey played down differences while stressing there 'can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine'.

However, MPs were far more blunt during an urgent session in Parliament.

Tory Sir Julian Lewis said Mr Trump needed reminding that 'appeasement led to World War Two', as he he urged the government to push defence spending quickly towards 5 per cent of GDP.

He said: 'Will the Government impress on President Trump at every possible opportunity that the reason why appeasement led to World War Two was that it left a vacuum in Europe? Whereas the reason why the occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of that war did not lead to World War Three was the United States filled any possible vacuum and contained further aggression.

'So if he is going for a settlement against the wishes of the Ukrainian people, the least he can do is to guarantee directly the security of that part of Ukraine which remains unoccupied.'

Fellow Conservative Sir Bernard Jenkin said: 'Some of the defence chiefs have been expressing this, that we must be ready to fight a war with Russia if necessary, in order to be able to deter Russia, and if we are to be in any position to guarantee the security of an independent and sovereign Ukraine, after whatever is agreed between President Trump and President Putin.'

Labour MP Johanna Baxter welcomed the UK's position that 'any negotiations about Ukraine must involve Ukraine'.

'Because if reports of the call between President Trump and Moscow are to be believed, then this is less the Art of the Deal and more a charter for appeasement,' she added, warning that further Russian aggression is 'inevitable'.

US defence chief Pete Hegseth told European counterparts yesterday that Ukraine's dream of returning to its pre-2014 borders was an 'illusionary goal' and that Kyiv's wish for NATO membership was 'not realistic'.

His statements were widely seen as a victory for Putin and a devastating blow to Kyiv, which as a result could be forced to cede vast swathes of territory without the prospect of a security guarantee.

'I tell you they're drinking vodka straight out of the bottle in the Kremlin tonight,' Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton told CNN. 'It was a great day for Moscow.'

Analysts have warned that appeasing Putin could result in history repeating itself, with former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt accusing Trump of an historical sell-out of Ukraine.

'It's certainly an innovative approach to a negotiation to make very major concessions even before they have started,' he said. 'Not even Chamberlain went that low in 1938. That Munich ended very bad anyhow.'

Bildt is among a number of experts who have drawn comparisons between Trump's statements and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's 'peace for our time' declaration.
Et cetera.
Posted by Penguin_of_the_Best_Desert 2025-02-14 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top
 File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats 

#1 Oh, so NOW the UK is suddenly interested in their military?

I no longer care if Russia conquers the UK--that would be preferred over their Muslim population taking control over nuclear weapons.

I'd prefer Putin control the UK instead of the Muslims.
Posted by Crusader 2025-02-14 00:08||   2025-02-14 00:08|| Front Page Top

#2 And I feel the same about Europe. Europe will never taste freedom again--it will either be ruled by Islam, or Russia, and I don't give a damn. No more American money should be invested in the outcome.
Posted by Crusader 2025-02-14 00:10||   2025-02-14 00:10|| Front Page Top

#3 Maybe Europe should not been trying to take over the World for Globalism.
Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-02-14 02:47||   2025-02-14 02:47|| Front Page Top

#4 About the only difference between Moscow and Brussels is the quality of the suits the apparatchiks wear.
Posted by Procopius2k 2025-02-14 07:08||   2025-02-14 07:08|| Front Page Top

#5 I wonder what Trump is intending with this.

On the one hand, at least verbally, he curb stomps and threatens Russian and Chinese allies in an unprecedented manner ('Palestine', Iran, even South Africa) on the other hand he seems to be ready to give Russia and China strategic access to Central Europe.

Is he applying a madman strategy or is he really a Russian&Chinese asset now?

In any case appeasing an exploratory aggressor is a game that has its dangers. Russia wants much, much more than Ukraine, in Europe and worldwide.

I'm not defending 'Europe' in any way.

The EU, individual EU countries and European NATO countries outside of the EU have all but taken a d*mp on NATO, the US and true core principles of Western civilization over the last years, especially after 10/7.

E.g. NATO ally Spain closed its ports to US ships shipping arms to Israel, NATO ally Poland threatening to arrest Netanyahu (and implicitly Americans falling victim to arbitrary ICC shenanigans), the EU trying to impose censorship on Europe and the US, British threats to arrest Americans for free speech, Norway (NATO only) and Ireland (EU only) stepping up their political harassment of Israel after 10/7 etc.

Ultimately an alliance between an aggressively censorious, antisemitic and tyrannical Europe and a US that revives Western Civilization would be unnatural.

If European leaders were smart they'd ditch the ICC (a brainf*rt from the 'Holiday from History'), recommit to true Western values, support Israel and propose a renewed alliance with the US.

</rant>
Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-14 08:04||   2025-02-14 08:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Interesting answers. It will be an interesting rest of the decade.
Posted by Penguin_of_the_Best_Desert 2025-02-14 08:39||   2025-02-14 08:39|| Front Page Top

#7 See also

"Dean Acheson’s fateful speech and the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950"

What the Trump administration is doing here can have grave unintended global consequences even if the intentions are good.
Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-14 09:35||   2025-02-14 09:35|| Front Page Top

#8 What the Trump administration is doing here can have grave unintended global consequences even if the intentions are good.

On the contrary. US policies between the collapse of Soviet Union & Tramp's (second) election were going to provoke a nuclear exchange. And for what? Because the degenerates ruling Western Europe, are not content to destroying their own countries - they want to destroy the whole World?
Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-02-14 09:50||   2025-02-14 09:50|| Front Page Top

#9 If European leaders were smart they'd ditch the ICC (a brainf*rt from the 'Holiday from History'), recommit to true Western values, support Israel and propose a renewed alliance with the US.

Vance seems to make an offer along these lines at the Muchich Security Conference.

Him playing the good cop to Hegseth's bad cop.
Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-14 11:16||   2025-02-14 11:16|| Front Page Top

#10 Oh yeah?
Who are you going to call up, all those guys you've harassed and jailed because they don't want their daughters graped, their friends stabbed, and noticed the GayGB being the GayGB?

'I tell you they're drinking vodka straight out of the bottle in the Kremlin tonight,' Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton told CNN. 'It was a great day for Moscow.'

All I need to know in one paragraph. Thanks, Daily USAIDs.
Posted by swksvolFF 2025-02-14 11:35||   2025-02-14 11:35|| Front Page Top

#11 You expected Putin to let NATO have Sevastopol? That'd be like us letting the Chinese have San Diego Bay. Not without a fight. Keir Starmer talks a good fight but he's happy to let Ukrainians go to the trenches for his pipe dream of expanding NATO into Ukraine, and he's happy to let Uncle Sam pay for it. If he thinks it's so important, let him put his own ass on the line.

You wanna talk about appeasement? Churchill urged the British Parliament to prepare for war way back in the early 1930s. How is Britain preparing for war now? Do they think all those Muslim migrants will fight for them? How many divisions can they field? What will he tell his people when their boys start coming home in coffins? Who's gonna pay?

And who is the aggressor here? I don't see Putin rolling his tanks into Poland. He can't even get them to Kiev. How many of his "special forces" are on the down low in Scotland launching missiles at London?
Posted by Abu Uluque 2025-02-14 12:31||   2025-02-14 12:31|| Front Page Top

#12 ^The thing that really gets me are Americans who talk about defending EU in terms of "defending democracy".
Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-02-14 12:35||   2025-02-14 12:35|| Front Page Top

#13 ^ You mean like Joe Biden?
Posted by Abu Uluque 2025-02-14 13:24||   2025-02-14 13:24|| Front Page Top

#14 Time for fun with math. The UK Army at last count was about 75,000 (rounding up). Their tooth to tail ratio is officially 1:2. That means they have about 25,000 actual fighters (split between infantry, armor and artillery units). If they kept 5,000 in reserve, reduced external commitments to 5,000 (Gibraltar, UN peacekeeping, Northern Ireland, etc) they could conceivably put 15,000 combat troops into play. Once. Since they wouldn't have the depth to replace them anytime soon. The phrase "toothless lion" comes to mind.
Posted by Clem+Elmish4239 2025-02-14 13:25||   2025-02-14 13:25|| Front Page Top

#15 Everyone knows these people are bullshit, which is why they are screaming so much, because they don't want the natives to take to heart over there what is going on politically in the USA.
Posted by swksvolFF 2025-02-14 14:33||   2025-02-14 14:33|| Front Page Top

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