Peace Proposal

Austin Bay explains how the peace proposal to which U.S. and Ukraine have agreed puts Putin in a very bad position if he continues fighting and even if he does:

"A joint American-Ukrainian statement said the U.S. will "immediately" resume full intelligence sharing and military-security aid to Ukraine. The Trump administration also said Ukraine had agreed to the strategic minerals deal President Donald Trump offered as payment for U.S. financial and material support.

"Trump makes the case that the deal serves as an informal security guarantee for Ukraine — meaning the minerals-for-support deal tells Moscow the U.S. has a strategic interest in peace, in Ukraine's political existence, in Ukraine's economic viability and in its independence from Moscow's destructive absorption and totalitarian corruption.

"The deep logic behind Trump's deal is based on historical common sense that even a megalomaniac like Russian dictator Vladimir Putin should grasp: Peace empowers genuine economic viability and sustainability."

The spat in the Oval Office may have even been setup, I suspect,  to put Putin off-guard.