Tea at Trianon: The Crimean Conundrum

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, April 25, 2025

The Crimean Conundrum

From Jeff Childers:

U.S. negotiators had organized a high-profile Wednesday meeting to discuss terms for a permanent cease-fire plan with top Ukrainian officials in London. The US intended to present a deal the Russians had allegedly agree to, which would have completely and indefinitely halted the fighting while a final peace deal could then be negotiated at leisure.
Problems arose when Kiev’s thespian-in-chief got an advance copy of the agenda. His bloodshot eye was immediately drawn, not to his side of the ledger, but to something the U.S. had offered Russia to lock in Putin’s agreement. Specifically, the Americans offered to recognize Crimea as Russian territory. But the deal did not require Ukraine to make the same concession. It was win-win.
But winning was too much for the vertically-challenged Martial Law Administrator. He blew his short stack. Zelensky, enraged, got in front of Ukrainian media before yesterday’s talks began and delivered a defiant diatribe that would make a South African military dictator blush. Never Crimea! We won’t do it! We won’t let YOU do it! And more ranting to the same effect.
Secretary of State Rubio and Special Envoy Steven Witkoff immediately pulled out, scratched, and canceled their reservations, and let the junior members of the team handle the Ukrainians instead. Surprising no one, the discussions came up empty, or as NBC put it, “the high-level talks disintegrated.”
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, who attended the short-lived meeting explained, “Our people will not accept a frozen conflict disguised as peace.” Whatever that means.
Crimea is literally the dumbest place imaginable to stake out a red line.
🚀 Crimea is a jagged peninsula shaped like a lion’s paw, jutting defiantly into the northern Black Sea, sun-scorched in summer, wind-lashed in winter, and soaked in the blood of centuries of conflict. The storied peninsula has been claimed, conquered, and coveted by civilizations from the Greeks, Scythians, and Byzantines to the Tatars, Ottomans, and finally, the Russians, when Catherine the Great annexed it in 1783, calling it “the jewel in her southern crown.” (Read more.)