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We now side with Russia, our enemy for decades, a country that threatened to defeat and erase us from the earth. Russia has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons because they stole the plans for the atomic bomb from us after World War II. They are not hesitant to rattle that saber. On Feb. 24, we voted twice in the United Nations to side with Russia to block a vote to condemn Russia for their unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

Russia was the aggressor, we all saw it happen.

Why have we done this? The only possible explanation is that the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump wants to endear himself to the dictator of Russia Vladimir Putin and now sees himself and our country as beginning a friendship with our sworn enemy Russia. What is this all about? Putin wants to gain Ukrainian territory, then he may march into Europe and attempt to dominate some portion of Europe, probably Poland. Certainly, our NATO allies and I fear the United States will not resist because Donald Trump is now Putin’s friend. Putin certainly does not see himself as Donald Trump’s friend, but rather Trump is his patsy who will enable Russia to continue their aggression.

I had hoped that President Trump would allay these fears and explain away this foreboding shift in all that we hold dear, but while Trump’s speech to Congress was the longest in history there was no effort to explain. There was only more pressure on Ukraine to meet Russia’s demands.

What a terrible turn of events, we have abdicated all the principles of fairness and defending those who need our help, trying to make the world a better place and for what? Allowing a self-absorbed, deeply troubled man in the White House to lead us into a relationship with our enemy that will cause great harm to us and to the rest of the world. What are the next steps in this saga? Are we going to side with the Russians in some conflict in Europe? I hope not, but Donald Trump shows no resistance to Putin.

This was reemphasized on Feb. 28 in the White House when Donald Trump and JD Vance told our ally Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky that they are on their own, we the United States will not help them. While Russia continues to advance on Ukraine, President Trump has once again impounded the military aid to Ukraine that Congress appropriated, halted our intelligence assistance to Ukraine, ceased our offensive cyberattacks in response to Russian cyberattacks, cut off any hope of Ukrainian membership in NATO, and called Zelensky a dictator.

Trump even asked us to doubt that Zelensky wants to stop the slaughter of his people in this conflict, that he doesn’t want peace badly enough. This is code to Zelensky to agree to Russian demands for territory at the negotiating table. What price has Trump demanded of Putin? Nothing. Trump wants us to reward Russia with membership in the G7.

We all need to strongly resist this course of action and direction for the sake of our country, our democratic heritage, our children and ourselves. Please.