Now, we are in a lather trying to make sense of Trump’s latest non-sensical pronouncement on Ukraine. The one concrete change is Washington’s insistence that the Europeans pay for the weaponry and related equipment that the United States provides Ukraine. It was always unrealistic to take at face value Trump’s remarks that he wanted to be the peacemaker in Ukraine. For, to do so, he and America would have to accept minimal Russian terms representing a humiliating defeat for the West. Trump’s fulminations cannot hide the cardinal fact that America is locked into a self-declared combat with Russia – and all who are associated with it.