A footnote: When Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress in 2015 to lobby against the Iranian nuclear deal, seven Democratic senators and 42 Democratic congressmen boycotted him. (All Republicans showed up except one who was absent at a funeral.)
Congress and the Biden administration have a funny way of showing support: They provide enough to keep the killing going but not enough to allow a decisive win by Ukraine. Not even close. And in the absence of that, there's no pressure on Ukraine to negotiate an ending short of total victory. Yet this, we're told, is a vital US national interest. Creating forever wars at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars seems to be a DC specialty. I won't question anyone's motive for not showing up for this....show.
The Russians started it, of that there is no dispute. But the US is prolonging it just as I wrote. The Biden administration and Congress have no clearly articulated goal corresponding whatever it is that they are doing. IF the goal is a return to the status quo prior to February 24, the administration and Congress don't seem to be in any great hurry to achieve it. And if it isn't that, then Zelensky hasn't gotten a memo, much less the rest of us. But then on the sidelines you have the occasional eruption in DC about the need for regime change in Moscow, or retaking Crimea - or maybe not. I don't blame the US for starting the war, but I do blame Congress and the administration for treating this as yet another bureaucratic dial-turning exercise at considerable expense in lives - not ours...yet - and treasure. Soon it will be a year, and anyone who claims to know how or when this will end is lying, and that should worry you.
A war is not endless just because no one knows when it will end. Calling this war "endless" is a mischaracterization posing as an argument.
I know of few wars in which someone could, with justified confidence, predict the end date. I'm not worried that this war is no exception.
What you call "prolonging," I call thwarting. Putin started the war. With our help, Ukraine thwarted him and now seems to be winning. At no cost in U.S. lives, as you say.
I don't blame Biden and Congress for this state of affairs. On balance, I credit them.
As I said in my post, though, reasonable people can disagree about this. I may write about the war in the future, but have nothing to add at this point.
A footnote: When Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress in 2015 to lobby against the Iranian nuclear deal, seven Democratic senators and 42 Democratic congressmen boycotted him. (All Republicans showed up except one who was absent at a funeral.)
Thanks, Tom. I had forgotten about that.
Congress and the Biden administration have a funny way of showing support: They provide enough to keep the killing going but not enough to allow a decisive win by Ukraine. Not even close. And in the absence of that, there's no pressure on Ukraine to negotiate an ending short of total victory. Yet this, we're told, is a vital US national interest. Creating forever wars at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars seems to be a DC specialty. I won't question anyone's motive for not showing up for this....show.
Putin created this war (let's not blame America first), and at less than a year old, it can't reasonably be characterized as a "forever war."
The Russians started it, of that there is no dispute. But the US is prolonging it just as I wrote. The Biden administration and Congress have no clearly articulated goal corresponding whatever it is that they are doing. IF the goal is a return to the status quo prior to February 24, the administration and Congress don't seem to be in any great hurry to achieve it. And if it isn't that, then Zelensky hasn't gotten a memo, much less the rest of us. But then on the sidelines you have the occasional eruption in DC about the need for regime change in Moscow, or retaking Crimea - or maybe not. I don't blame the US for starting the war, but I do blame Congress and the administration for treating this as yet another bureaucratic dial-turning exercise at considerable expense in lives - not ours...yet - and treasure. Soon it will be a year, and anyone who claims to know how or when this will end is lying, and that should worry you.
A war is not endless just because no one knows when it will end. Calling this war "endless" is a mischaracterization posing as an argument.
I know of few wars in which someone could, with justified confidence, predict the end date. I'm not worried that this war is no exception.
What you call "prolonging," I call thwarting. Putin started the war. With our help, Ukraine thwarted him and now seems to be winning. At no cost in U.S. lives, as you say.
I don't blame Biden and Congress for this state of affairs. On balance, I credit them.
As I said in my post, though, reasonable people can disagree about this. I may write about the war in the future, but have nothing to add at this point.
Thanks for your contributions to the discussion.
OK, so what *is* the US victory condition? I keep hearing that it's regime change in Russia. And *that* sounds like an invitation to nuclear war.