Red Red Wine said:
I think folks are missing a bigger world view on the rare earths push by Trump and staff.
China currently controls almost all rare earth minerals. We need to secure alternate sources of minerals. If Ukraine is sitting on a ton of metals we should make a deal to get them to market and loosen China's controlling position
The plus is that it helps drive peace between Ukraine and Russia by default. US heavily invested gives the US more of an "interest" in preventing Russia from continuing their aggression. And Russia now knows they aren't just going to be fighting Ukraine if they continue.
Take a bigger view and you might see the "smart" in it that it really is.
You beat me to the punch. For those on here who say Trump doesn't really care about the mineral rights deal with Ukraine...they are simply wrong. If that were true, that then means Trump does not care about our almost total dependence on China for minerals, pharmaceuticals, etc. which we all know he does care considering his economic war on China since 2016 (which Biden extended).
The larger strategic assumption that people are missing was flat out communicated by Rubio this last week. The Trump admin is wanting to pull Russia back into western civilization and away from China's sphere through economic and security partnerships. Thus, if we negotiate an economic arrangement with Ukraine (via mineral rights) and not a military arrangement (NATO) then that resets the partnership with Russia to economic negotiation and away from kinetic conflicts.
Will Russia come into our fold? Nobody knows. But we sure as **** should be trying since Clinton and Bush I squandered the opportunity post '91 which is arguably the biggest blunder in modern geopolitical history.