Ron Jenkins

There can now be precious little confidence in Donald Trump’s professed desire to secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, or indeed in his commitment to the peace and security of Europe. The United States Congress passed legislation expressly intended to weaken Putin’s war machine through severe economic sanctions. Yet Donald Trump, having signed that very legislation into law, has now issued an executive order suspending its principal provisions, mere days before they were due to take effect. The contradiction is as extraordinary as it is deeply troubling. At the very moment when Congress sought to tighten the economic stranglehold on Moscow, the President of the United States chose instead to loosen it. Whatever justification Washington may offer, the practical consequence is to afford Putin precisely the breathing space that Congress intended to deny him. One must therefore ask whose interests are truly being served. Certainly, it is difficult to see how such a decision advances the cause of Ukraine, a sovereign European nation whose people continue to endure the appalling consequences of Russia’s unprovoked aggression. The increasingly erratic pronouncements and deeply questionable decisions emerging from the White House should serve as a stark warning to the international community. America’s traditional allies must now confront an uncomfortable reality: the assurances upon which European security has depended for generations can no longer be accepted without question. The forthcoming American midterm elections have consequently assumed a significance extending far beyond the domestic affairs of the United States. At stake are the constitutional checks upon presidential power, the credibility of NATO, the security of Europe and the preservation of an international order painstakingly constructed in the aftermath of two devastating world wars. What makes this moment particularly alarming is the apparent disregard for the lessons of history. Peace is not secured by indulging aggression, rewarding territorial conquest or weakening the collective resolve of democratic nations. Such conduct risks emboldening those who regard military force, rather than international law, as the ultimate instrument of political ambition. We should harbour no illusions about the gravity of the present circumstances. The possibility of a wider European conflict, with consequences reaching far beyond the continent and potentially involving nuclear powers, is no longer a danger that responsible governments can afford to dismiss. Donald Trump may continue to proclaim himself a peacemaker, but grand declarations are rendered meaningless when contradicted by the decisions of the man making them. The measure of any statesman lies not in the extravagance of his promises, but in the consequences of his actions. And those consequences now demand the most searching scrutiny, for the price of political recklessness on this scale may ultimately be paid not merely by the people of Ukraine, but by generations who had every right to expect that the catastrophic lessons of the twentieth century would never again be so casually disregarded. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cxr5…