Trump, Ukraine, and the Lessons of Troy
A war with no easy way home
Simon Rorschach turns to the Trojan War to ask whether Trump will recognize that every new escalation in Ukraine risks drawing America into a wider struggle with consequences far beyond Kiev.
Zelensky remains true to form, and his conduct increasingly resembles a minor king before the walls of Troy, moving from tent to tent among stronger allies and asking each chieftain for another spear, another shield, another division of Myrmidons. In his latest CNN interview, Zelensky described a daily round of calls to the White House, to European capitals, and to influential Americans, much as the princes of the Achaean camp sought favor from Agamemnon whenever the battle before Troy turned against them. During these appeals, Zelensky combines urgency, flattery, reproach, and moral pressure in a manner worthy of the quarrelsome councils of the Iliad, with Patriot interceptors occupying the place once held by bronze armor and chariots. His purpose resembles the purpose of any commander outside Troy: strengthen the shield, survive the enemy’s arrows, and create freedom for the next assault. Yet America occupies a very different place in this modern Iliad because Donald Trump sits closer to Agamemnon than to Ajax, and the king who supplies the army must think about the fate of the whole expedition rather than the wishes of a single warrior. For Trump, approving another shipment of weapons to Kiev may bring short-term political benefits at home, just as Agamemnon often satisfied restless chiefs to preserve unity among the Achaeans, while the larger question concerns whether each concession brings the expedition closer to victory or deeper into a war whose end recedes like the towers of Troy on the horizon.
