Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The theatrics of Monday's White House confab are over. As badly as the Disasta in Alaska went last Friday, President Donald Trump did a first-rate job of presiding over this conclave of key leaders from six major European states, as well as the European Commission and NATO.

Expressions of solidarity were clear and apparent. And the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a complete reversal of last February's debacle when the Big Z was escorted out of the White House in semi-disgrace.

But the looming question is the one Gen. David Petraeus posed about the second Iraq War to journalists: "Tell me how this ends?" And, indeed, how will the 3 1/2-year war in Ukraine end any time soon -- or will it?

To Donald Rumsfeld's useful list of "knowns and unknowns," history should be added in considering how this may end. The combination does not project optimism, although hope can never be abandoned.

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