The minerals deal is the tarbaby

Just an attempt to get the U.S. indefinitely entrapped in Ukraine.

What the U.S. should do is just STAY AWAY from Ukraine.

Ukraine's fight is not our fight.

We definitely should not be lured in by the promises of "Ukraine's resources."

If those resources are so great, 

why was Ukraine begging the U.S. for aid in the 2010s?

Remember Joe Biden using the threat of denying Ukraine loan guarantees to get Ukraine to fire Viktor Shokin.

Ukraine is a never-ending tarbaby for the United States.

If Europe wants to spend its resources aiding Ukraine, that is its business.

I hope Trump does not lose sight of the big issue.

It is not getting reimbursed for what the U.S. has given Ukraine, or gaining control of Ukraine's resources.

It is ending the entanglement with Ukraine.

On the desire of some in the IC, and many in the U.S. establishment, to oppose Russia, Larry Johnson has some observations here:

https://sonar21.com/trump-and-europe-fail-to-realize-that-russia-has-a-vote/

 "[a recently retired CIA case officer who is still doing contract work for the Agency] 

voiced outrage at Trump “cozying up” to Putin and exclaimed: 

“I’ve spent forty years fighting those bastards and Trump is surrendering.”

The US foreign policy establishment is like a prehistoric bug frozen in amber. 

They are trapped in the past. 

They have a fixed image of Russia as 

an authoritarian communist dictatorship and cannot accept the reality that 

modern Russia has reverted to its nationalist, Christian roots."

Again, that is Larry Johnson's opinion.

BTW, Larry Johnson back in September 2024 took a detailed look at what Ukraine actually has in the way of natural resources:

https://sonar21.com/why-the-west-lusts-after-ukraine-back-to-the-future/

Politico takes a look at Ukraine's mineral resources:

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-bad-mineral-deal-ukraine-volodymyr-zelenskyy/

 

Here is a counter to those who think it is the 1930s again, 

with Putin playing the role of Hitler and Russia that of Nazi Germany:

"The Fallacy of '39"

https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2004/12/27/the-fallacy-of-39/

by Justin Raimondo.

This gives the flavor:

"from the New York Post to the New York Times, the op-ed pages of the nation’s newspapers are swarming with keyboard commandos who look upon Ukraine as the Russian Rhineland. 

If only the West had stopped Hitler early on – but it isn’t too late to stop Putin!

...

Putin’s drive to smash the power of the oligarchs represents Russia’s final reckoning with the old Soviet ruling class. 

It is a push to reclaim stolen wealth and finally break the power of parasites who have been feasting on the Russian body politic since 1917."

As a perhaps eccentric counterpoint to that POV, opposed to certain wars, 

here is some really great music:

Handel, Esther close

https://youtu.be/klR0HN3rrV8