The Ukraine War needs to end, and I say that as what I am – an American, concerned with the interests of America. This brutal conflict has gone on too long, and it is not in the interests of America that it continue. Sure, there are the moral aspects – hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have been maimed or killed, and war is generally a bad thing (not always, but generally). Putin's a bad guy; he sure is, transgressive morons and their opinions to the contrary. But let's get real – what we need to be concerned about is us. The Ukrainians and the Europeans can and will take care of themselves. This is not our fight, not our fault, and not anything we should keep expending treasure and risking blood on – both in terms of dead soldiers, should we intervene, and dead civilians, should it get out of control and we start tossing hot rocks back and forth with Putin.
Nor is it in our political interest – Donald Trump should be working on the economy, not refereeing some endless dispute between faraway people. This problem was left in a steaming pile on Trump's desk by President Eggplant, and for some reason, we have taken it upon ourselves to solve this Slavic border dispute. Now, I will get grief – again – for calling it that, but that is exactly what it is. It's a feud between various brands of Slavs, and the roots of this conflict go back a thousand years. We Americans can't understand it, and it is the height of arrogance to try. Remember in "Goodfellas" when narrator Ray Liotta explains how the killing of Joe Pesci was between the Italians and inscrutable to outsiders (he puts it in more colorful, i.e., NSFW, terms)? Well, that's what's happening here, and all our goody-goody, goo-goo attempts at fitting this square peg into our own comfortable, Manichean good guys v. bad guys round hole are ridiculous.
We can't understand their conflict, and we should not base our positions on our assessments of who is nice and who is bad. What we should do, what we must do, is base our policies on what serves America's interests. And prolonging this war does not serve America's interests.
Let's get some of the nonsense out of the way. Even if Putin took all of Ukraine, which the brave and plucky Ukrainians have kept him from doing for now, he would not then set his sights on conquering the rest of Europe. He would love to be the USSR, but he is not the USSR, which had both the capacity and the communist ideology that made invading Western Europe a real threat. I know – I was there at the end of the Cold War, in stark contrast to all the freshly minted bear-baiters of today who never found a war they were not ready to have you or your kids fight for them.
Nor are America's allies going to get some sort of message that America can't be relied upon if they need us, should we step back. The Ukrainians are not our allies. They are friendly – I trained Ukrainians, like them, and wish they could win – but we have executed no treaty requiring us to go to war and get Americans killed on their behalf. A treaty requires Senate confirmation, which means debate and a formal commitment by the American people through their representatives to put lives on the line. You don't get that because some people, who almost inevitably would not have to do the fighting nor have kids expected to do the fighting, huddle up and come to a moral judgment that we are obligated to Ukraine. And no, that Clinton made some handshake agreement to protect Ukraine when Ukraine gave up its nukes does not count. That's not a treaty; only a treaty binds the United States. Blame Clinton for misleading them and them for being misled. Actual allies – yeah, we are on the hook. Non-allies – no, sorry.
Though we have no obligations regarding this war, we have chosen to insert ourselves in it, and now the useless Europeans, the Ukrainians and the gung ho to fight Russia crew (they hate Russia in part because they think Putin helped elect Trump – yes, stupidity is a key component of their foreign policy) are all expecting Trump to make this problem go away. Trump did announce he would do it, which is now coming back to bite him on the Schumer. There's a big problem here, and it's Putin. Putin knows he might not be winning at the moment, but he is not losing, and eventually the sheer bulk of his massive empire will crush the Ukrainians. Like every Russian dictator ever, he cares nothing about the casualties he takes. He knows that, much to the chagrin of the Ukrainians and the staff of The Lincoln Project, size matters.
Putin refuses to give in, and that's a problem. There was a big to-do about an alleged peace plan that gave Russia much, even most, of what it wants. Yes, did someone expect the side with the advantage not to get its terms? The Euros then came up with their own peace plan, which basically expects not only Russia to give up its objectives but also contains a promise by the U.S. to guarantee Ukraine's security – more about that in a second. Yes, these geniuses (including American Ukrainian toe-suckers) have got together among themselves, drafted their wish list, and expect Putin to accept it. These are children. It's ridiculous. You don't negotiate with a foe with a stronger hand by demanding he give in on everything. I don't care what your professor at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service seminar on international negotiations told you – that's not going to happen.
And then there's the poison pill of U.S. involvement. We are supposed to agree to a NATO Article 5-like provision to this imaginary agreement that says America must defend Ukraine if they fight again with Russia – you know, continue the conflict that's been going on for 1,000 years. I do not know if this is one of those wink/nod handshake agreements, like the nuke protection pact, or whether it would be put up with as a treaty. If the latter, let's see that Senate debate and vote on the record about giving Ukraine and Russia the ability to bring America into a war, because that's what this provision would do.
Neither of these draft peace plans is going to go anywhere at the moment. Maybe this is the time we step away. It makes political sense – Trump 2.0 needs to be focusing entirely on affordability, and this clusterfark is taking up bandwidth and stepping on his message. Since everyone's mad at Trump – the one guy among the Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans, and the American foreign policy establishment who bears zero blame in this awful business – maybe Trump should wash his hands of it. "You critics don't like my plan? Make your own. I'm going to work on getting rents and ground beef prices down, and you brilliant people can fix this thing."
It's time to move on from Ukraine. If the parties want to fight – and if you don't make peace, you want to fight – then they can fight. Leave us out of it. It's a no-win for America, and that's what we should really care about.
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