The Trump administration is moving to end a war that should never have started. The weakness of the last administration and a generation’s long loss of military credibility are a main source of the problem. Working to restore the deterrence that was a hallmark of American strength will be required to achieve peace; the actions being taken now are heading in the wrong direction and they may end in ways we do not wish to imagine.

We must first get past the hyperbole and Trumpisms that are going to be misrepresented by both sides. To arrive were we want to we must first acknowledge facts, Russia is the bad guy in this scenario and there is no way around that. To say the war was started by Ukraine and that they could have ended it is a total mischaracterization of historic facts.  All of this is a repeat of history. When the secret pacts of Europe led to the First World War. When the League if Nations failed to contain the imperial ambitions of Japan and Italy. The failure of the Munich Agreement that was to guarantee peace in our time but led to the Second World War. The attempt by the west to appease Stalin that brought enforced dictatorship to half of Europe for half a century.  

Recent events have shown the true nature and intent of Putin to reestablish the Soviet Union. While Trump and the rest in the administration believe they can negotiate with Putin his response to the ceasefire agreement recently presented shows he has no intention of negotiating.   

The 20^th century should be a map of what not to do in regard to world politics. World War One started because of power grabs by major European powers. At the end those European powers were drained of capitol and will. This allowed the rise of extremism, communism, fascism and imperialism.  Attempts to appease dictators brought war. Following war we got more war. This brought attempts to contain war to small regions. Now we have come full circle back to attempts to appease dictators. These attempts will fail as have those in the past. The truth is Putin started the war after the west did nothing to curb his past aggressions. Saying NATO is the root cause rejects his invasions of Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia to start, then the annexation of Crimea and then Donetsk and Luhansk.  Failure to show strength against Italy and Japan gave Hitler the courage to attack Poland. Will failure to show strength against Russia give China the courage to attack Taiwan?  

While Biden did all he could to blame Trump for all the ills in the world, conservatives point to the Biden’s involvement with criminal activities in Ukraine. This last overshadows all discussions about Ukraine. Biden and the Dems poured billions into Ukraine therefore any attempt to help Ukraine must be wrong. Since we have sent 300 billion plus dollars into the war with no end in sight there must be a problem with Ukraine. Given the fact that Ukraine with a much smaller army has been able to fight Russia to a stalemate is evidence that the money is not wasted. The fact that the U.S. along with the west has openly said it will not introduce ground forces into the war allows the much larger Russia to continue with a war of attrition that they will likely win if nothing changes. Trump is attempting to move negotiations forward when in fact Russia is not negotiating. Their main demands remain unchanged, they pick the government and leaders of Ukraine and Ukraine can never become part of NATO. We are then only negotiating the timeline of when Russia wins. 

Putin has made no attempt to hide his ambition and desire to reestablish the Soviet Union. And history has shown us that the only way to stop him is through force or a credible threat of force. This is not Europe’s problem this is the world’s problem. 

Domestic policy and foreign policy may follow different roads but need to lead to the same destination. America First does not exclude what happens in the rest of the world. To ensure the future of the American dream America First must include America Leads. And America leads best when sticking to the principles of our founding. We must protect the innocents from the bullie