Jmonday March 3 addition: I hear many saying that what Zelensky said about our having a "nnice Ocean" between us and our enemies was particularly offensive because it disrespects the great sacrifices we've made to help our European allies in the past, but I dn't think that's at all what he meant. I think over and over he ws emhasizing his aniety about security, which he shouldn't have been doing in that context, OK, but the point is that all hea menat was that he has this enemy on his border while we have a whle ocean between ourselves and our enemies wo that our situation is different psychologically, to explain his constant carrying on about security. I thinkk he was misunderstood. I think everything he said was about how he needs security and that's what matters to him most. Should have been the theme behind closed doors and answered there I suppose, and he was wrong to bring it up as he did in front of the cameras, but nevertheleeess I dn't think it was ghte kind of offense , at least not the remark about the ocean, that it was taken to be by some.
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I know there are layers of history here, betrayals, historicla events that were never resolved, motivational differences and so on andsoso forther, but after all the smoke cleared today I kept having the impresseion that Zlensky was saying the same thing over and over, thta he was concerned bout having security against Russia, tht he has this strong enemy on his border that is always attcking or threateneing attack, taking land, killing people, and that's what he needs help with most. And he seemed to treat the deal being offered as less important to him, even the idea of peace itself, because he couldn't see any guarantees that the country could be protected from russia.
he was rude and gauche and offensive about many things he said, including the way he was dresed for such an occasion, certainly not somebody used to behaving properly in such a context, which is maybe the most usurprising things about the whole encounter. But I ended up thinking he's just gauche and couldn't get his concern across about how security above all is what matters to him. It seemed to me he said it in many different ways, manyh of them objectionable because dismissive of what trump was trying to do, but at the same time he kept saying God bless and I think that was his way of trying to mitigate the offense and aim for some sense of displomacy. Appreciation, gratititude, all that was felt to be missing by Trump and Vance.
The deal sounds like a very good one for both Ukraine an America but somehow he doesn't sound like he thinks so, maybe because he doesn't picture the seucirty inherent in having a lot of MAericans in the country mining for minerals which would be a security oto a great extent in itself. Trump a coupole of times said he couldn't promise seucirty because negotiations aren't even really underway yet.
Anyw, in the end I think thre was at least a top layer of frustration at not being able to get his main concenr across that fueled the weird war of words from Zelensky's side.
The deal does sound like a good one. I hope he can come to his senses and make up with rump so it can go through.
Miscommunication is a problem for all of us human beings, and Trump himself gets misunderstood more than most maybe because of his style. I just listened to a talk by Victor Davis Hanson about how he was misunderstood when he said Zelensky started the war, which he later said he didn't mean the way it was heard, nand claling Zelensky a dictartor. I tryied to capture the URL to the talk abut I have a feeling it won't work. I'll try to paste it anyway.
Victor Davis Hanson: Volodymyr Zelenskyy is No Winston Churchill
