President Trump, in his neverending pursuit of the Noble Peace Prize, proposed a plan to end the war in Ukraine.
Putin illegally invaded Ukraine in attempt to take over the entire sovereign nation and make it Russian territory. The UN has verified that at least 14,534 Ukrainian civilians have died. Putin targeted schools, hospitals and civilian areas, and he targets them still, as the plan is on the table. Looting, rape and murder are the Russian military’s standard operating procedure.
Under this plan, Ukraine will give up land that Russia seized, putting Russia closer for the next invasion. Ukraine is forced to limit its army to 600,000 from the current approximately 2 million, making it easier for the next Russian takeover. Ukraine is forbidden to join NATO, so Russia can invade again and not fear NATO involvement. Russia must agree not to invade again. How did that work out the last time?
This is not a peace plan, it is a “piece” plan. Give a a piece of Ukraine to Russia, so it’s easier for Putin to then take another piece — or the whole country.
The derogatory term “surrender monkey” describes a country willing to make concessions to its invader, rather than stand up for what’s right. If Trump’s plan is put in place, the United States of America, who for our entire history has stood up on the battlefield for freedom and democracy, will be the world’s surrender monkey.
I hope and pray that our European allies, whose soldiers died in many wars with our soldiers, will not accept this cowardly plan and will stand up for Ukraine and for the democracy we once held so dear.
Ray Belongie, Lt. Col., USMC (ret.), Sunrise
An appeasement to Putin
The peace plan to end the war in Ukraine was predictably met with disdain in Kyiv and major European capitals.
President Trump’s handpicked special envoy, Steve Witkoff, a billionaire developer with no expertise in foreign affairs, is the architect of what some experts call a capitulation blueprint. Known for his pro-Kremlin bias, Witkoff, claiming that Putin is not a “bad guy” and who has “kindness and intelligence,” crafted a proposal heavily favoring Russia.
Its widespread demand for major concessions by Ukraine recalls the Munich Agreement of 1938. It allowed Germany to annex a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia, and we know how that instrument of appeasement, led by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, worked out. Hitler’s Germany was emboldened and Czech sovereignty was soon destroyed.
Jim Paladino, Tampa
Uncomfortable truths
Trump’s fawning allegiance to Putin, his decision to deny Ukraine needed missiles to counter the slaughter of innocent civilians, and a shameful peace plan written with the approval of his stooges are indefensible blows to democracies everywhere.
Trivializing Ukraine’s sovereignty and imperiling Europe’s security are blatant signs that America is compromised. Unwilling or unable to punish Putin for his criminal acts, it prefers instead to reward him with territory and trade. It took a dead pedophile to thrust us into the midst of our nation’s greatest existential moment, redefining who and what we are and forcing us to confront the many uncomfortable truths that were always in plain sight.
Trump and his co-conspirators have managed to do what no foreign power could: to destroy the fabric of American exceptionalism; to make us untrustworthy, unreliable and scorned in a world where democracy is under siege; to pit citizen against citizen; and to dupe Americans into undermining their self-interests.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s MAGA departure was a canary-in-the-coal-mine moment. That coal mine is democracy.
Steve Talercio, Hallandale Beach
Spring, sprang, sprung
Trump sprung a “peace plan” on Ukraine that reads as if it were drafted in Russian. It gave President Zelensky what amounts to a surrender ultimatum. The past tense of spring is sprang. Sprung is the perfect tense.
Rick Garr, Fort Lauderdale
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