The Best Outcome Of The Alaska Summit Might Be Failure

As I write this post, Presidents Trump and Putin are preparing to meet in Alaska. Some media pundits seem to believe that the meeting will result in progress toward a lasting peace in Ukraine. I don't think that is possible. Here are my reasons.

* Both men are prolific liars. Even if some kind of agreement was reached, neither could be trusted to follow through on it, since both have a history of breaking promises they made.

* Trump seems to think Putin wants peace. He doesn't. What he wants is to re-establish the old Soviet Union, and that would require his taking all of Ukraine. And Putin seems to think he is winning and time is on his side.

* Putin is smarter than Trump. This was illustrated in Helsinki, when he manipulated Trump - making him look like a fool before the entire world.

* Trump thinks he and Putin are friends, and he can use that friendship to convince Putin to go along with him. They are not friends. They are a vicious dictator (Putin) and a person who admires and wants to be a dictator (Trump). That is not friendship.

* Putin is heading into the meeting with definite goals in mind. Trump heads into them with only a hope to do something.

Because of the above, if an agreement is reached it would most likely benefit Russia - not the United States or Ukraine.The best outcome we can hope for is that the meeting is a failure. 

Peace can be accomplished in Ukraine only by Russia's military defeat. Trump must finally recognize that for the good of Ukraine, Europe, and the United States.

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UPDATE - It looks like my best case scenario played out. Putin agreed to nothing, and Trump got nothing but manipulated. I guess we can be thankful Trump didn't get conned into giving away Alaska and half of Ukraine.