Mr Trump’s latest initiative in imploring for a week’s ceasefire in the harshest and coldest part of the northern winter may have had a positive response from the Russian President Vladimir Putin who may have agreed not to bomb Ukrainian cities so that the shivering people do not suffer more during power outages
If there were to be a Nobel Prize for war and peace — with due apologies to Leo Tolstoy — there would be no contest as the US President Donald Trump would walk away with it. The avid claimant for the Nobel Peace Prize may have been disappointed with the decision of the Swedish committee last year, but he has carried on in his uniquely Trumpian style of threatening wars on one hand while pleading for peace on the other.
Mr Trump’s latest initiative in imploring for a week’s ceasefire in the harshest and coldest part of the northern winter may have had a positive response from the Russian President Vladimir Putin who may have agreed not to bomb Ukrainian cities so that the shivering people do not suffer more during power outages. We have only Mr Trump’s word on this, but it does appear as if his humanitarian plea may have found a sympathetic ear after all.
If Mr Putin desists from hitting Ukrainian urban centres for a while, it might just suggest that he may not be averse to agreeing sometime soon for longer pauses in the Ukraine war that is just weeks short of four years now. A man who had agreed to nothing in years of trilateral peace talks might just see the light even though a lasting peace would still be conditional on Ukraine agreeing to give away a considerable chunk of the Donbas in exchange for peace.
With someone else’s Nobel Prize in hand, Mr Trump has kept himself busy ruminating over Pentagon options for attacking Iran with missiles from aircraft carriers, destroyers, combat ships and aerial bombers positioned in waters off Iran. However, Iran seems to have weathered the first wave of protests but, according to estimates, taking more than 5,000 lives.
It is believed the US President is giving diplomacy the first chance to bring Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s men to the table before letting his armada display their attack prowess, with the aim of keeping Iran off enriching its nuclear fuel resources further and also in solidarity with the protesters who seek to bring the regime down. And what could be more apt than a war and peace prize for the leader who has kept the world on edge as he alternates between waging war and talking peace.
