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Alastair Crooke: [https://youtu.be/MeeE1qavSg0 Is Trump Missing the Boat?]

Alastair Crooke: [https://youtu.be/MeeE1qavSg0 Is Trump Missing the Boat?]

:''It seems that Trump doesn't know that there were a thousand [[drone]]s fired into Russia by Ukraine in the days preceding this last Russian [[missile]] assault. And he didn't seem to know that they threatened [[Putin]]'s own helicopter traveling from [[Moscow]] to [[Kursk]], accidentally or not. But he did not seem to know it. Who's briefing him? And as I say, there is not any sort of sense that it is possible to have a serious discussion because this transactional approach, that it's just a matter of how many oblasts who gives up, and what misses the fact that this is a deep and protracted conflict between Ukraine and Russia. And it goes back a long way, as Putin has explained. And parts of it irreconcilable. This is why you can't just simply sort of say, 'oh let's just, you know, cut off this oblast and that oblast', we have a deal. And we can have a ceasefire. And we can put off any political discussion to the long term, as they did in [[Korea]]. I mean, this is absolutely nonsense. And the credibility, and I mean this point when I say, this is a pivot point. Credibility of the [[United States]] and the [[Senate]] is destroyed in this period now. Putin is going to go on playing along with it and trying to manage the, you know, delicate American psyche as he sees it in the Senate, and see how much that can be managed. But everyone understands.  

:''It seems that Trump doesn't know that there were a thousand [[drone]]s fired into Russia by Ukraine in the days preceding this last Russian [[missile]] assault. And he didn't seem to know that they threatened [[Putin]]'s own helicopter traveling from [[Moscow]] to [[Kursk]], accidentally or not. But he did not seem to know it. Who's briefing him? And as I say, there is not any sort of sense that it is possible to have a serious discussion because this transactional approach, that it's just a matter of how many oblasts who gives up, and what misses the fact that this is a deep and protracted conflict between Ukraine and Russia. And it goes back a long way, as Putin has explained. And parts of it irreconcilable. This is why you can't just simply sort of say, 'oh let's just, you know, cut off this oblast and that oblast, we have a deal'. And we can have a ceasefire. And we can put off any political discussion to the long term, as they did in [[Korea]]. I mean, this is absolutely nonsense. And the credibility, and I mean this point when I say, this is a pivot point. Credibility of the [[United States]] and the [[Senate]] is destroyed in this period now. Putin is going to go on playing along with it and trying to manage the, you know, delicate American psyche as he sees it in the Senate, and see how much that can be managed. But everyone understands.  

:''So the pressure on Putin is not coming from, what was the case where they felt he wasn't doing enough to win it. They now know perfectly well that Putin understands a deal is almost impossible to conceive with [[America]] now, unless [[Trump]] is able to show that he has the [[political]] clout to be able to say something, and to mean it, and to take it forward in political action. And they don't see that. And that of course means that we're heading towards escalation. In fact, I mean, it means escalation is inevitable.''

:''So the pressure on Putin is not coming from, what was the case where they felt he wasn't doing enough to win it. They now know perfectly well that Putin understands a deal is almost impossible to conceive with [[America]] now, unless [[Trump]] is able to show that he has the [[political]] clout to be able to say something, and to mean it, and to take it forward in political action. And they don't see that. And that of course means that we're heading towards escalation. In fact, I mean, it means escalation is inevitable.''