Martin Jay: Dumb and dumber plan to bring peace to Ukraine

Scholz and Macron have a plan to bring peace to Ukraine, but Putin can’t stop laughing as it’s so stupid. And why would Russia quit now when Europe is on the back foot anyway?

Hollywood has a new double act which it can make a sequel to the comedy starring Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels ‘Dumb and Dumber’. Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz could easily play these roles now, given their gob-smacking stupidity recently in attempting to reign in President Zelensky, who recently in London managed to break his own record at a live press conference for sniffing or touching his nose in an odd manner.

Zelensky is, and always has been, the real stumbling block when it comes to kickstarting peace talks. And nothing much has changed of late, except that Biden is starting to panic in Washington as it is clear the obscene amount of money which was previously shovelled to Ukraine is going to slow down in 2023, due largely to congress now having the Republicans controlling the House and an election race kicking off. Biden and his cronies have warned Zelensky that time is running out and this latest tranche of cash has to get real results. Their thinking is that if he can make more gains on the battlefield, this will stand him in good stead for negotiating later on. The nightmare scenario for Biden is that U.S. elections are fought on a single issue – Ukraine – and that this will reinstate Trump or Haley.

But it’s more of a nightmare for Macron and Scholz whose mishandling of Zelensky is laughable. Recently these two knuckleheads spoke with Zelensky and urged him to begin peace talks with Putin. His response, according to social media, was “there’s nothing to negotiate and no one in Moscow to negotiate with..”. Vexed by this recalcitrant attitude, the spoilt brat was offered an incentive which, when viewed in a clear light, gives analysts and observers a clue as to how the West managed to lower itself into this sack of angry scorpions in the first place, where Western sanctions actually punish EU citizens more than Russians.

READ: Salem AlKetbi: America’s Insistence on “Defeating” Russia

Scholz and Macron offered to supply Zelensky with even more weapons plus a guilt-edged offer of some kind of NATO membership if he starts peace talks with Putin. Yep, you read correctly. Given the rank stupidity of the rationale behind this offer one wonders whether the Ukrainian leader’s recreational habits with the Colombian Panadol Extra in powder form has extended to these buffoons. What drugs are Scholz and Macron taking if they think these incentives are going to help negotiate peace with Putin? That’s like going round to your neighbour’s house to complain to him about the noise he is making from beating his wife and offering him your baseball bat as an incentive to stop.

And given Putin’s position now, it would take a miracle anyway to negotiate with Zelensky with or without these ‘incentives’. For Ukraine, even if we are to humour the west in its optimism, there is a window of opportunity to make a small impact on the battlefield perhaps at the end of summer if the 100 tanks promised will arrive. But this is a very optimistic viewpoint, given that even the tank crews will be rookies and the 2000 km ‘border’ between Russian forces and Ukrainian ones is too large for these tanks to have any real impact. The truth about the tanks sexed-up story, is that they will be used in a defensive capacity only. And that’s even if they arrive as some analysts are very sceptical that Biden will even send the 30 or so M1 Abrams. Many believe it is just one more lie by the American president who knows that this latest batch of military aid is probably the last that will be sent.

Given that, Putin’s generals will no doubt seize the window of opportunity to go ahead with a spring offensive with new tanks rolling off the production lines. Key fact about tanks: West has a shortage and a long delivery period. Russia doesn’t. And now with China and Iran piling in with military hardware to add to Putin’s arsenal it’s little wonder why there is a certain panic setting in both from the U.S. and EU leaders. Macron and Scholz are waiting for the first card to fall on the continent which will almost certainly be the UK when the present Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will have to scale back spending on Ukraine before the next winter sets in, in the UK around November time this year. Around about the same time, western leaders will be struggling to explain to voters how poor people are going to get it in the neck even more as the tank plan has backfired big time, when Russia showcases its ‘tank buster’ robotic mini tanks which are already arriving in Donbass ready for the shooting match.

It is a sad reality of life that the international arms business needs wars to accelerate sales of new products. Russia is going to make a killing with new orders for these unmanned tank busters when they have their first victories in Ukraine. It’s going to be one more ‘k-ching’ moment of the sound of western sanctions filling the pockets of Russians. Again.

And for the Leopard IIs and Challenger tanks? Who will buy them after this PR disaster? More money and jobs lost in the West. Dumb and Dumber needs a third remake.