The Ever-Hopeful Jake Broe Again Only Flirts with Pillar Three
- john raymond
- Aug 11
- 2 min read
Jake Broe’s latest interview is a textbook case of how an otherwise competent analyst can stop just short of the most consequential conclusion. Out of some sense of cautious optimism, he continues to flirt with the concepts embedded in Pillar Three—the traitor-general frame—without ever committing to them.
That means anyone listening to him must themselves make the necessary leap, because Jake will not. In his telling, Trump is gullible, vain, and easily manipulated. In the reality Pillar Three describes, Trump is an active, willing agent whose decisions align so consistently with Kremlin objectives that accident is no longer the plausible explanation.
At the level of war planning, this gap matters. Hope is not a strategy!
Analysts who follow Jake’s framing without supplying the missing piece will inevitably underestimate the structural danger. They will misread delay as dithering rather than as an intentional stalling action; they will treat diplomatic theater as failed negotiation rather than a strategic gift of time to the enemy.
By soft-pedaling the traitor-general conclusion, Jake delivers a product that is usable for public morale but incomplete for operational planning.
I accept Jake knows the truth but fears the consequences of saying it aloud. He wants to keep Western publics—especially Americans—engaged in Ukraine’s cause, and he worries that calling President Trump what he is—a traitor to democracy, Ukraine, NATO, and the wider West—will demoralize supporters or alienate potential converts.
On this front, I disagree.
Yes, this truth is deeply demoralizing. When fully voiced, it collapses almost every avenue of hope for Ukraine—if the conflict is viewed strictly through a conventional or nuclear war lens.
But that collapse is not a bug—it is the necessary clearing of illusions that allows for the adoption of strategies suited to the actual conflict.
And this is why Pillar Two’s internalization is critical. This is not a conventional war being fought in Ukraine. It is an asymmetric war waged by a Putin-led circus of autocrats who have already marched the world into the early phases of World War III.
They care nothing for the human or material costs because Pillar One—Regime Security—is their sole compass.
Every negotiation, every pause, every piece of “engagement” with Trump must be read not as an honest search for peace, but as a maneuver in a larger campaign whose end state is the preservation of his and Putin’s power, whatever the price to the rest of the world may be.
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