Americans love to identify with the Lone Ranger, heroically riding to the rescue of a beautiful maiden possessed by a powerful foe intent on doing her wrong. It was the most popular television show in America in the 1950s. To Americans, no maiden is more fetching than Europa, kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull. So what if she had foolishly allowed herself to be seduced? The Lone Ranger is not judgmental. Whatever her faults, Europa embodies all the virtues upon which his own nation (the United States of America) was founded. He must rescue her.

So, twice in the 20th century, American Lone Rangers in their multitudes journeyed far from their homes and farms, across an ocean, to do what had to be done ‘over there’. Destiny had called upon them to rescue the European continent from its own folly. And so they did, the second time hand-in-glove with the Soviet Union, which if truth be told bore the brunt of the casualties. Soviet Russia sacrificed 20 million lives to keep its homeland intact, stopping Nazi Germany in its tracks, and was given half of Europe in return by a dying FDR at Yalta. This sad history set the stage for the current war in Europe. But who is fighting whom? This has to be sorted out before applying the Lone Ranger-rescues-Europa template to the current situation.

It ought to be easy to figure out who the belligerents are, but in this age of proxy wars, unmarked soldiers, and drones, it seems at first to be devilishly difficult. Television viewers and media consumers in the West, who would have been hard put to find Ukraine on a map, were first introduced to this war in 2022 as ‘Russia invades Ukraine’. The history of Crimea as an integral part of Russia since the time of Catherine the Great, the Nazi core of the Ukrainian Army, the U.S.-EU promise of ‘not one inch eastward’ by NATO following the reunification of Germany, the constant bombardment of Russian civilians in eastern Ukraine since 2014, the overthrow of an elected President of Ukraine (Yanukovich) by coordinated action of EU/CIA/State Department/Soros forces — all these inconvenient facts were blacked-out in Western media. Only the Russia-v-Ukraine narrative was allowed to appear.

In this narrative, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, who despite overstaying his constitutional term of office, plays the part of Europa — to the hilt. He regularly garners much applause — and money — in Washington, London, Berlin, and Paris. Like a music-hall performer, he picks up the money cast at him, keeping some for himself, and without reserve demands more. Increasingly sophisticated equipment such as drones, long-range artillery, and underwater explosives is flowing into Ukraine. It is deployed with great ingenuity against Russia, as in the recent (June 1, 2025) attacks on Russia’s strategic air fleet in Murmansk and Irkutsk, and on the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea with the Russian mainland. Technical assistance from the United States, Britain, and France is essential to these forays, and to Ukraine’s overall prosecution of the war.

The timing of the recent drone attacks deep within Russia, on the eve of peace talks, leaves no doubt as to their purpose — to torpedo any talk of peace. Although some prisoners were exchanged, peace was off the table — again. For every juncture where peace beckoned was marked, by no coincidence at all, by another provocation. The numerous precedents include former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s emergency mission to Kiev to urge further warfare when Ukrainian President Zelenskiy seemed inclined toward peace; the U.S.-Norwegian sabotage of the Nordstream II gas pipeline from Russia cutting off inexpensive Russian gas to Germany and Europe; and the intentional scuttling of the Minsk Accords by Macron/Merkel, who later admitted publicly this was nothing more than a ruse to give Ukraine more time to prepare for war. All of these saboteurs openly boast of their roles in prolonging the war. From all of the above, it becomes clear through the fog of proxies that this is a war of the United States against Russia. The role that EU/UKNATO has cast for itself is to egg on the belligerents enough to attack one of them in a way that can be portrayed sympathetically on television news in America. The Europeans, who cannot possibly fight Russia by themselves, hope to draw the United States further into their conflict, resuscitating the 85-year-old narrative. Cue the comely maiden Europa beseeching the dashing Lone Ranger for aid in her hour of need.

Will President Trump take the bait? It appears he was not informed in advance of the attacks on Russia’s strategic aircraft. Why, one might ask, are Russia's strategic aircraft sitting on the tarmac in plain view? They have to be, according to the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), visible to satellite surveillance. It's an essential element of Mutual Assured Destruction, which is what prevents the U.S. and Russia from attacking each other. Zelenskiy and his backers just blew up that Treaty. Putin is a lawyer, he takes international law seriously. This now gives Russia the 'right' to attack the U.S. and any other country that supplied weapons. That doesn't mean it will happen immediately, but the U.S. is at DEFCON-2, meaning the military assesses such an attack as more probable now. (DEFCON-1 designates nuclear-capable aircraft or missiles already in the air, or actual nuclear attack.) An Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack, by means of a thermonuclear bomb exploded in the upper atmosphere, would take out the entire North American electrical grid. No communications, no Laverne and Shirley reruns, no Internet, no Facebook, no Bitcoin, no antiquated FAA air traffic control, no water distribution, no bank transactions, lights-out, and no warning of all of the above.

To prevent this outcome, President Trump must first recognize the reality that Russia and the United States are the real parties to this conflict. There is nothing to be gained by hiding behind proxies. If Russia and the United States agree to end the war, they can end the war now, leaving Zelenskiy and EU/UK/NATO entirely out of it. What to do about the inevitable provocations? EU/UK/NATO would then be fighting Russia on their own, without US assistance, which they cannot do. They would accuse Trump of 'abandoning Europe', implore him to take up his predestined role as the Lone Ranger, make him out to be a puppet of Putin if he doesn’t. These are formidable historical/mythological appeals. But this is 2025, not 1940.

The self-appointed officials in charge of Europe change every few years, while drifting ever further from traditional European freedoms and human rights. The current crew of Macron-Merz-Starmer prosecutes political opponents and disqualifies them from contesting elections (France), employs Stasi-like surveillance against the most popular party (Germany), and jails more people for social media posts and tweets than for violent crimes committed by immigrants (Britain). Governance of these nations is fast approaching the style of the Soviet Union. President Trump would do well to discard the role of Lone Ranger and adopt that of Tonto, the solemn peacemaker who feels kinship with both warring parties. Let him make common cause with those who really represent Europe — Meloni in Italy, AfD in Germany, Orban in Hungary, LePen in France, plus populist parties in Romania, Slovakia, and Poland, many of whom would be in power now if fair elections were held with free media reporting.

If the warring parties — the United States and Russia — will have signed a peace treaty, any act of war by other belligerents is subject to legitimate counter-attack. That would end the war very quickly. With deepstaters, Democrats, media, EU/UK/NATO all braying for more war, President Trump risks getting snookered by them again if he doesn't act. Alexander Markovsky suggests in his Strategic Analysis of Peace (May 25, 2025) that if Trump extends his peace efforts toward returning the territories taken at Yalta from Poland, Hungary, and Romania to those nations, he could become known as the liberator of Eastern Europe. And if Trump does end the war, which he devoutly desires to do, even his opponents on the Nobel Peace Committee would have to award him the Prize.

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