March 12, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: The topic of International Strategic Security (ISS) is mostly outside the province of civilian purview. Thus, events, like Friday, Feb. 28, can baffle the public.
Zelenskyy’s interests aside, the United States cannot guarantee the security of Ukraine. The U.S. never guarantees the security of any country, because it would require the U.S. to fulfill its guarantee regardless of the actions and interests of other countries. America is not going to war with a belligerent, such as Russia, in the role of “guarantor of any country’s security.” America, assisting Ukraine as a Guarantor, would oblige NATO to participate with the United States under terms of the NATO “all for one and one for all” doctrine. A NATO member is not going to war over a unilateral security guarantee offered to a non-NATO country.
Zelenskyy, asking for security guarantees as a condition to striking a contract for Ukraine’s commercially exploitable precious metals, was entirely inappropriate ... which is why the Vice President triggered the altercation in the Oval Office, which Trump finished out as “... we are done here”.
The real plan is a step approach. Step one has already been achieved (a chat with Putin). Trump knows that if Zelenskyy invites American commercial enterprises into Ukraine to exploit a natural resource, Putin’s military adventure cannot afford to kill or harm Americans and their global business partners while they are engaged in a legitimate commercial enterprise.
All nation-states have similar interests in protecting their citizens operating in foreign countries. The best current example of this U.S. strategic approach to the use of force and to the maintenance of peace in the world, is evidenced in the Middle East. The U.S., protecting commercial interests, has been able to manage belligerents short of all-out war, without calling upon members of her various alliances … dragging them into global conflicts. DON HENKE Goshen
