Subject: Re: No sign of riots...
You still want to believe that Trump is going it completely alone here? And that he's not listening to the Europeans?

Yep. They know the importance of blowing smoke at Trump - how much importance he places on people saying how right he is, and thanking him publicly for whatever he's doing. But their votes at the General Assembly indicate that there's now a big separation between the actual foreign policy position of these nations and those of the U.S.

Look - we're a big important superpower. If we want to throw in on the side of the invading dictator instead of the innocent people defending their country, we can do that - and no one can stop us. If we're backchanneling that we're going to give the store away to Putin regardless of what Europe thinks, they may come to terms with that reality and decide not to fight it in public. Today, we have that power - it's the currency that comes from having supported Europe for so many decades, that we can decide for them what happens in Ukraine without anyone having the ability to change it. We can make them do some stuff they disagree with, because they depend on us.

But there's a downside to that. If we cram a bad deal down Ukraine (and Europe's) throat, Europe's going to start moving away from our sphere of influence in order to reduce their exposure to that kind of power. They haven't in the past, because we've (generally) used our power in ways that are consonant with Europe's interests. If we decide we're going to only focus on our own interests, then they're going to make changes on their side of the relationship that improve their security at the expense of our interests. It's hard to see how this benefits us at all in terms of our security situation.