Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Ukraine is dismissed by military analysts

Former President Donald Trump’s plan to quickly end the war in Ukraine has been dismissed by military analysts who have said news week that ending the conflict will be a complex process that will take time.

Trump said in a recent interview that he could end the ongoing war in Ukraine within 24 hours and also expressed his support for helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia. The former president has argued that he could bring the conflict to a conclusion in a single day in the past, drawing criticism from fellow Republicans and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“This war has gone on so long and with such ferocity that there will be no easy path to peace,” said Sarah Kreps, a professor in the Department of Government and an adjunct professor of law at Cornell University.

Trump’s comments come amid evidence that his position on Ukraine appears to contradict many Republican voters. An opinion poll conducted at a Turning Point Action conference in Florida on Sunday found that 95.8 percent of conference attendees opposed US involvement in the war in Ukraine.

“I know Zelensky very well. I felt he was very honorable because when he was asked about the perfect phone call I made [in reference to a conversation with the Ukrainian president that led to his first impeachment]He said yes, he said yes. He didn’t even know what they were talking about. He could have come forward,” Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday before she weighed in.

“That will not be enough to stop Putin from bombing,” Bartiromo said.

“I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well, even better,” Trump said.

“And he had a good, very good relationship with both of them. I would tell Zelensky, no more. You have to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, let’s give.” much. We are going to [give Ukraine] more than they ever got if need be. I’ll have the deal done in one day. One day,” she said.

news week has reached out to former President Trump’s office by email for comment.

The former president’s solution was met with skepticism and heavily criticized by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, while experts who spoke with news week suggested that Trump was being too ambitious.

Christie, a Republican seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and has been highly critical of Trump, took aim at the former president’s comments on Twitter.

“Donald Trump has released his top secret plan to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours,” Christie tweeted Monday. “The plan: He knows Putin and Zelensky ‘very well’ and will make a couple of calls. Move over Churchill, Trump is here to save the day.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also seeking the Republican presidential nomination, appeared to criticize Trump for making the same claim in early July.

“Well, the only way to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours would be to give Vladimir Putin what he wants. And that’s the last thing the United States should ask Ukraine to do,” Pence told CNN.

a complicated process

Despite former President Trump’s repeated claims that he could end the war in 24 hours, the solution to the conflict is likely to be more complex, according to Barry Posen, a professor of political science at MIT and author of Constraint: A New Basis for US Grand Strategy, among other works.

“Former President Trump has two important ideas about how the war between Russia and Ukraine could be ended,” Posen said. news week. “First, both sides will have to see the significant costs of insisting on the continuation of the war.”

“In fact, the two sides will also need to see a set of special benefits to end the war,” he said. “And second, the United States is in the best position of any country to assemble and promise a set of significant costs and benefits that could influence the willingness of the two parties to reach an agreement.”

“That being said, this is a complicated diplomatic process, not feasible in 24 hours or even 24 days, but perhaps 24 weeks,” Posen continued.

end the war

“Both sides now have deep scars and dislike and mistrust of the other. It is doubtful that a solution will come from exchanging money and redrawing the lines on territory that both sides claim as their own,” said Sarah Kreps, author of Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the decline of democracyand Drones: what everyone should know.

“So far, events in the war have shown that neither side has a decisive advantage and that the war will continue as a bloody war of attrition that could only end when resources run out,” he said.

“While Trump’s claim about speed of resolution is absurd on its face, ironically, in typically grandiose fashion, Trump has stumbled upon a stranger truth: Why didn’t the parties to this conflict come to an agreement?” . Corri Zoli added.

Zoli is a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Homeland Security and Forensic Sciences at Syracuse University School of Law. Part of his research investigates the changing nature of the US military force structure and the challenges of asymmetric warfare for military personnel.

“Since at least the post-9/11 wars, scholars have long criticized the ‘militarization’ of US foreign policy in which the Pentagon has expanded its role well beyond traditional core military operations,” said. news week.

Zoli pointed to academic studies that have argued that “since the end of the Cold War and especially after 9/11, the US has accelerated its rate of military interventions, increasing its use of force abroad and using a any and all security threats, rather than taking a deliberative, conflict-resolution, diplomatic approach.”

“The result? Mission breakthrough, State Department eclipse in budget and personnel, protracted interventions with little to show for it (Afghanistan was the longest war in US history. of choice, ‘all with little to show for it’) public acceptance’ or understanding of what vital national interests are at stake,” he continued.

“If all you have in your foreign policy toolkit is a big Defense Department hammer, then every security issue looks like a nail,” Zoli said.

planning for peace

The Ukrainian war will inevitably come to a conclusion whatever the outcome. Zoli also criticized the Biden administration’s current approach to the end of the war and advocated for better planning.

“All conflicts end and negotiations are part of that process,” Zoli said. “Inexplicably, the current administration has prioritized defeating and removing Putin over preparing for peace.”

“Because ‘neither side has a realistic expectation of military victory or unconditional surrender’, as [former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations] Thomas Pickering notes on External relationshipsplanning peace in Ukraine requires more thought and preparation,” he said.

“If the United States fails to shape the postwar landscape to serve its interests and the interests of global cooperation and peaceful conflict resolution, other actors will seize the opportunity,” Zoli added.

Trump’s role

Whether the war in Ukraine will be over by the time the next presidential term begins remains to be seen.

President Joe Biden is running for re-election and could run against Trump again, but even if the former president wins, he may have less ability to influence the conflict than his comments suggest.

“Donald Trump still seems not to have learned from experience that the President of the United States does not have the same authority as the owner of a private corporation, nor does the United States have the authority simply to bring the rest of the world in line.” said Pose news week.

Thomas Gift, founding director of the Center for American Politics at University College London, UK, expressed skepticism that Trump could find a quick diplomatic solution.

“It’s hard to see why Trump is being so unusually modest in saying he could end the war in 24 hours. Why would it take so long?” said gift news week.

“Like the declassification of documents at Mar-a-Lago, you imagine I could think of a truce, and telepathically Putin and Zelensky would know to come to an agreement in seconds,” he said.

Gift was referring to Trump’s earlier claim that a president can declassify documents simply by thinking about it.

It seems likely that the former president will continue to claim that he can end the war within 24 hours despite the fact that the Ukrainian president has previously criticized him for doing so.

“It seems to me that just wanting to end the war is beautiful,” Zelensky told ABC. This week in July through a translator.

“But this wish should be based on some real life experience. Well, it seems that Donald Trump already had these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war. [namely, since 2014, in the eastern Donbas region]and as I suppose, he had that time at his disposal, but he must have had some other priorities,” he said.

“If we are talking about ending the war at the expense of Ukraine, that is, making us give up our territories, well, I think that in this way Biden could have ended it even in five minutes, but we would not agree,” Zelensky said. .