From Lead to Clean-up
The Steady State | by Bill Piekney
Even before Putin arrived for an unprecedented welcome of an international tyrant on free American soil, those of us who follow the evolution of American foreign policy were apprehensive. What followed bore out our fears. We knew who Vladimir Putin is, knew of his horrid childhood of extreme poverty and abuse at the hands of his father, his learned skills at judo and the manly arts, his thuggish and constant fighting as a youngster. It was evident today by that signature tight, little swagger. Some of us were appalled at his being here after what he has done. He came as a tough, diminutive bully, obviously delighted to be here judging by his broad smile and jolly manner. He seemed a perfect interlocutor for our president, who seemed to greatly enjoy Putin’s company despite his allegedly new realizations of Putin’s crimes. What we did not know of course, is how anticlimactic the outcome would be.
The president practically gushed in welcoming Putin, and allowed the guest to speak first, an unusual tweak to diplomatic protocol and a silent acknowledgement that it was Putin who seemed to hold the pole position.
We are left to scratch our heads in the absence of even the slightest detail on exactly what things there might have been agreement on. We are left to the vague blather of Mr. Trump’s halcyon wrap about having had a great meeting. He took a bow and said that he would be making a lot of phone calls based on those invisible points of agreement that absolutely no one outside that room knows anything about and about which there was no reference from Putin himself.
In short, this summit was a bust. Putin came in the lead, maintained that lead, praised the relationship with a lot of filler drivel of a renewed relationship between two “neighbors”. The press conference confirmed to the world that the United States is not in charge of or driving the future course and consequences of any further negotiations to halt the Ukraine War.
On the contrary, our president seemed to play the role of Putin’s note taker and social secretary. It is our president who will make calls to President Zelensky and European leaders, and tell them what he was unwilling to share with the American people. We are left to speculate that during those several hours Putin did not budge on his demands, that Ukraine still lives in the shadow of more war, and that the Donbas’ reunification with Mother Russia is very much still on the table.
We went from lead to cleanup.
Bill Piekney served 4 years in the US Navy, 30 years with the CIA retiring as a Senior Operations Executive, and 5 years as a Senior Consultant at ODNI, International Consultant in Intelligence and National Security. He is a member of The Steady State, an organization of former National security officials
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 300 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.