Thinking Hard About Ukraine War and Peace: One Year Out

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Thinking Hard About Ukraine War and Peace: One Year Out

Sat, 03/04/2023 - 13:16
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WASHINGTON -- “Slava Ukraini” is heard in the halls and streets here, especially when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a ringing speech to Congress before Christmas. That was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s crowning act before she gave up the gavel.

President Joe Biden loves trains so much he took one across Ukraine -- for 10 hours -- to meet Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy, like British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, conquered the task before him: winning over the American government and people to help his country battle an aggressor.

Serious money and advanced arms are going to the fight against Russia. After meeting the scrappy leader in person, Biden announced that 31 Abrams tanks will equip and bolster Ukraine’s soldiers.

The Metropolitan Opera just gave a concert at the year mark of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Let’s get sobered up and skeptical at this strategic point. Clearly, Ukraine’s independence must prevail.

But the official all-out American policy, “We’re in it as long as it takes,” also says the war is not worth risking our own soldiers. We’ll just pay the bills.

What we have is tragic bloodshed, broken cities and bombed farmland. This is a home game for Ukraine, the breadbasket of the world. Soon the global economy will pay a high price.

Is it time for the United States, proud of its revived leadership of NATO for a noble stand, to cut a path to peace negotiations?

Everybody loves a good war. We see the David story in standing up to Goliath-like Vladimir Putin. The press, for the fourth straight time, is gung-ho about a war going on until the bloody end.

The Atlantic Monthly stands out. Let me remind you, it’s full of Iraq War hawks. David Frum and George Packer, to name two. Look how poorly that folly turned out. Afghanistan was the longest lost war in our history.

Putin, even if he’s consumed with paranoia about Russia “losing” Ukraine since the Cold War ended, has some shrewd pragmatic bones in his body. He knows the war is losing in world opinion and perhaps on the battlefield.

But in realpolitik, Putin won’t retreat without some kind of exit that saves face. He has staked so much that he can’t just walk away.

Western diplomats, think hard, and put away that roiling rhetoric against Russia, clearly the wrongdoer.

Get out the table and bring all parties to it. That is how to end a war. Once again, only America can force a settlement, bringing along all our NATO allies.

Speaking of the NATO military alliance of 30 member countries in Europe, that’s part of the problem. Do we really need Albania in NATO? I don’t think so.

NATO expansion was once all the buzz. In truth, it was a huge mistake and a provocation to Russia, notably Putin, who mourned the break-up of the Soviet Union.

President Bill Clinton opened the door for the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary to join NATO, former Eastern Bloc countries. That move rubbed salt in the wound when American leaders boasted about “winning” the Cold War.

How much better to frame the change as: “The Cold War has ended.”

Under President George W. Bush, things got worse. Never an ace on foreign policy, he blundered by championing seven small nations for NATO membership, including three Russian republics.

The final straw in the stew was when NATO hedged it might admit Ukraine one day. It was agreed that Ukraine was not nearly ready to join NATO.

As a journalist who covered President Donald Trump’s first House impeachment, we heard sworn testimony from former ambassadors Marie Yovanovitch and William Taylor that Ukrainian politics was way too corrupt to qualify.

The diplomats declared major reforms were needed before it could be counted among Western democracies.

(In 2019, Trump was caught trying to bribe Zelenskyy into announcing an “investigation” into Hunter Biden -- in exchange for $400 million in military aid.)

In her 2022 book, “Lessons from the Edge,” Yovanovitch noted oligarchs in Ukraine held the most power, but the new leader, Zelenskyy, was trying to take them on.

While we’re back in a Cold War, it would be nice to avoid World War III.

Jamie Stiehm may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. Follow her on Twitter @JamieStiehm. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit Creators.com.