Some national news outlets worry — without irony — that President Volodymyr Zelensky could be voted out of office if Ukraine holds elections.
Uhm…
“Donald Trump is demanding Volodymyr Zelensky hold elections that could oust him from office as the price of peace,” laments the Telegraph.
“There are concerns that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could be ousted from office after President Donald Trump said that Kyiv should hold elections,” writes Newsweek.
What?
Back in late 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told his people that the very idea of holding a presidential election the following year was “absolutely irresponsible” while fighting the war with Russia.
Zelensky won a five-year term in 2019. His term was scheduled to end in 2024, but with his declaration of martial law after the 2022 Russian invasion, there would be no election. Zelensky also outlawed the opposition party.
President Trump, who is eager to end the Russian-Ukraine war that has cost countless lives and hundreds of billions in U.S. aid (much of it unaccounted for), is pushing Ukraine to hold an election. Trump’s thinking makes sense. Without an election, Trump sees Zelensky as a “dictator,” as illegitimate, and therefore he should not be included in any peace talks with Russia. This is Trump’s way of muscling Zelensky to the negotiating table. And right now, with this demand for an election, Trump appears to have checkmated him.
To be clear, few things would make me happier than Russia getting its ass kicked out of Ukraine. There is no question Russia is the evildoer here. There is no question Russia invaded a sovereign country and started this war. But…
Reality is reality. And the reality is that we are once again pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into a war that cannot be won. Ukraine is not going to win this war, and after Iraq and Afghanistan, I am done with America participating in endless wars.
As far as the Ukrainian presidential elections, the establishment’s excuses for Zelensky canceling elections make zero sense.
They say Russia will interfere in the election. Well, that has always been the case in Ukraine. The war didn’t change that and let’s not forget that Zelensky was the Russian favorite in 2019. Let’s say Ukraine wins the war and then holds elections. Guess what, Russia will try to influence that one as well. Fear of Russian meddling has been a constant in Ukraine for decades. This is not a new fear born of the war.
The second excuse is especially stupid — this idea that you cannot hold elections during a war. America did. President Abraham Lincoln won a second term in the middle of a civil war. Americans were at war with one another and we held a national election some 175 years ago. So don’t tell me that with all the technology available in the 21st century, Ukraine can’t figure this out.
More recently, the City of New York held a mayoral election just weeks after the devastating Islamic attack on September 11, 2001.
We are three years into the Russia-Ukraine War. How many more years is America supposed to pour our treasure into Ukraine? When will the establishment finally concede, Okay, this is long enough?
How long is Zelensky allowed to remain president without the legitimacy of an election? When will the establishment say, Okay, that’s long enough?
Just give me a time limit, Neocons. Five years? Ten years? At what point do you realize that a negotiated settlement is better than a never-ending status quo that is only resulting in death, destruction, and the depletion of our treasure?
Reality is reality is reality, and the reality here is that it is time for this war to end. Ukraine will lose some territory to the gangster Vladimir Putin, and that sucks. The bad guys winning always sucks. But anyone interested in reality knows that is much preferable to another endless, unwinnable war.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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