@blablarg18 A few personal thoughts on this whole thing... (not arguing against you, just sharing my views in general)
war is retarded, unnecessary, & Europe's problem
That's an incredibly short-sighted position to take (even from a purely selfish national point of view). It's also ironic that this is the exact opposite of what many in the US consider to be their finest hour enacted by "the greatest generation".
Zelenskyy is a dictator
Not going to argue with that, but scolding him as one while not treating Putin the same way (even though he is arguably a much bigger dictator) makes the US look like massive hypocrites (and makes Trump look like all the libdem slander about him being BFF's with Russia was actually true).
His position is terrible
Undeniably true, but the same could've been said for every European country that was overrun by the Nazis.
His people hate him.
Not the ones I've spoken to (both currently living in Ukraine and in other European countries). This seems to be one of those media narratives.
"You're gambling with World War 3"
How ridiculous would it have been if the US had told European countries & the UK in the 1940's: stop fighting back and just make a deal with Hitler, you're risking world war 2! If you can't defend yourself for fear of war then that just means signaling to every aggressor that it's open season and that they will get away with it, which encourages more war. Case in point: Russia took Crimea in 2014 and was allowed to get away with it. Did they stop there? Of course not, why would they... Drawing firm lines with overwhelming consequences is what actually stop wars from happening. Weakness only invites them.
He was being disrespectful
Maybe, but not nearly as disrespectful as Vance and Trump were being to him. Oval office or not, treating foreign leaders with respect is a two-way street and Zelenskyy wasn't the one shouting at his counterpart.
I like Trump a lot on most things.
I can respect his position of putting America first.
I can respect his business-oriented view of who has the weaker hand in this conflict.
But the way he appears to give zero consideration to right & wrong, to which side is trying to invade and annex the other and which side is fighting to protect their homeland from being conquered... That really makes me lose a lot of respect for him. If the shoe was on the other foot and the US was being invaded I'm sure he would advocate for fighting back with everything they have instead of capitulating, but if it's another country then they're the bad guy for not simply taking the loss? Ridiculous.