During an appearance on Cynthia Pooler’s “Issues That Matter” YouTube channel today, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter bluntly expressed his view that Donald Trump lacks the statecraft skills required to get the world out of the present trajectory towards World War III. Pooler had asked Ritter to respond to Trump’s posting in social media yesterday, in which he tweeted in response to President Joe Biden’s Jan. 25 announcement that the U.S. would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine: “First come the tanks, then come the nukes. Get this crazy war ended, now. So easy to do.” Ritter pointed out that Trump came into office in 2016 on a platform of improving U.S. relations with Russia, a perspective that Ritter said that he agreed with. He had four years in office to make that happen, but was blocked at every turn—both by the Democratic Party, which branded him an agent of Vladimir Putin, and from Republicans within his own administration. Ritter argued that Trump had neither the courage, nor the knowledge to overcome the undermining of his intentions towards Russia. Furthermore, Trump has a businessman’s understanding that NATO’s existence makes no sense, but doesn’t understand why NATO shouldn’t exist otherwise.
Ritter also argued that Trump doesn’t have the negotiating skills that are needed to avoid war with Russia, because his strategy will be shaped by his capitulation to the narrative about Russia opposing him while he was President. “He doesn’t know anything about Russia.” Ritter said. “Before he could get to denuclearization with North Korea, he had to challenge Kim Jong Un with fire and fury,” he said. That tactic is not going to work with Vladimir Putin. “Putin doesn’t play that game. So what is Donald Trump’s negotiating strategy going to be? ‘Vlad either make peace with me or what?’”
For America to come to the negotiating table, Ritter went on, America has to acknowledge reality. “Crimea is Russia forever! The four districts that have been absorbed by Russia are Russia in totality. Ukraine can never be a member of NATO. NATO must recognize Russia’s legitimate spheres of influence and withdraw to its pre-1997 boundaries in terms of its military-technical equipment....”
