The former U.S. Secretary of State and former CIA director, Mike Pompeo, penned an op-ed in the Aug. 22 Financial Times demanding that “Trump Must Not Reward Putin for His Aggression in Ukraine.” The man who publicly bragged that as head of the CIA “We lied, we cheated, we stole,” used a good smattering of those attributes to lecture President Trump:
“The President is marshaling American strength to build the coalition necessary to secure Ukraine’s future—exactly the kind of leverage Putin fears.… As someone who sat across the table from Putin as secretary of state, I know he only responds to strength….
“This clear-eyed realism will be crucial to ensuring that any deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine secures Kyiv’s sovereignty and deters Moscow from future acts of aggression.…
“Putin has indicated that he wants Zelenskyy to surrender the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk provinces as a condition for ending the war. This would be a strategic catastrophe for Ukraine and a political non-starter for its government.… More fundamentally, rewarding Putin’s aggression with territorial gains would signal to every dictator worldwide that violence pays.…”
