And the hard part is yet to come...

"I once read that starting a war was easy, but brokering a peace to end it is very hard. Right now, we are in the very hard stage. The easy part is over. The hardest part is yet to come. Zelenskyy needs to grow up and smell the coffee. He can save his nation. He can keep this war from spreading. But the next part with take guts. It will take vision. It will take leadership."   

Uff-da. The easy part is behind us (yet to be finished), and the hard part remains to be tackled. But here is the rub - the easy part must be done first. And from the sounds of Zelenskyy, there is no give in this Ukrainian President. He still wants the United States to make some kind of NATO type guarantee before he will sign the mineral deal. I mean, Zelenskyy would sign it tomorrow, if some strings were attached. Trump's position has not changed one inch. The mineral deal is as deep as we will go. It is time to end this bloodbath. But without the deal from Zelenskyy, there can be no deal with Putin. 

Here is the grim reality. The ONLY reason we are at this juncture right now is Putin has thousands of nukes. Period. If Putin did not have any nukes, this war would have been over in weeks, not years. Why? The NATO nations of Europe would have stepped in to help Ukraine. But Russia does have nukes. And he has threatened to use them many times. If he uses just one, it is game over. The fuse would be lit, and WW III would be in full swing. And it would be over in about one day. Then, nuclear winter. A poisoned planet. The end. 

I don't know if Zelenskyy fully grasps the magnitude of the situation we are in right now. We have been lucky so far. We have poked the bear by supplying Ukraine with ATTAMS and Storm Shadow missiles. Now F-16 fighter jets. And intelligence. Any of which could have dragged us into this bloodbath and then accelerated it. But Trump knows how close to the edge we are right now. And he wants this endless war to stop. Now.

Anybody who thinks that Putin will agree to a cease fire without keeping Crimea and the Donbas Area he occupies, is not reading the tea leaves nor the room. Already, Putin is hinting that he might like some more territory than he already has. This is Trump's challenge. IF Zelenskyy gets in line with this cease fire agreement, and signs the mineral agreement then Trump needs to convince Putin that stopping this war is in Russia's best interest. Is this fair to Ukraine, that they need to give up some land to a tyrant? No, not a bit. But war is not fair. Never has been.

By the way, to those on the left who are chanting "Russia, Russia, Russia" again, like Trump is in Putin's pocket - grow up. If Putin thought for one second that we were aligned with Ukraine and not neutral, there would be no deal to be had. Trump knows Putin is a thug and a murderer. He knows Putin started this war. And Trump also knows if the war drags on much longer, this WW I type of trench warfare would eventually end up with Kiev falling into Russian hands. And the streets with Kiev would be running with innocent blood.

I once read that starting a war was easy, but brokering a peace to end it is very hard. Right now, we are in the very hard stage. The easy part is over. The hardest part is yet to come. Zelenskyy needs to grow up and smell the coffee. He can save his nation. He can keep this war from spreading. But the next part with take guts. It will take vision. It will take leadership.