> U.S. and Ukraine Search for a New Strategy After Failed Counteroffensive
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/us/politics/us-ukraine-war-strategy.html
Okay, folks, how about this "new strategy"? Make a peace agreement on mutually beneficial terms of cooperation for all sides. Yes, it is a difficult strategy, but it is feasible and certainly less disruptive.
That would just embolden bloodthirsty autocrats the world over.
Besides, Putin’s signature means shit. The guy’s track record of abiding by international agreements that Russia is a party of leaves much to be desired. So a peace agreement with his government would mean shit and count for absolutely nothing.
Do I need to somehow indicate that I’m a foreign agent to keep you out of trouble?
Putin's signature works when it benefits him. In its quest to oust a competitor from the European gas market, the U.S. has no reason to seek a compromise. So they will offer Ukraine a new strategy, one after another, until either Ukraine or Putin is finished. It's a win-win situation for the White House, with hundreds of thousands of civilian lives held hostage.
I really have issues when everything is framed as a geopolitical struggle. It completely robs people of their agency. I mean, if Russia invaded my country (again), I couldn’t care less about what kind of a geopolitical game the Americans are playing, as long as we get the aid that we need.
But yeah, agree completely with the general premise that a compromise is not in American interests. If the goal is for Putin to be finished (and I think it is), giving him some form of normalisation such that he can rebuild and restock for a renewed push 7 years down the line would be madness.
I would agree if Putin was any different from them. He's just like everyone else. His ideology is simple and understandable within the capitalist world order. He is not something unique, he is not something different, he is not Lenin or Castro or Mao. So if Russia's next leader is in the same paradigm, nothing will change. And to expect Russia to refuse to defend its geopolitical interests is disastrous (for the Russians themselves).
Hopefully Trump can stop the war and offer not a new strategy but a simple peace.
That’s what the Germans, the French, and everyone else with a sufficiently large distance from the Russian border relied on. That he can be understood from a purely capitalist framework, that he wouldn’t start a war that’d be bad for business, or promptly ended one if it turned out to be. Alas.
I hope the next Russian leader has better track record when it comes to working to support Russian geopolitical interests. You know, make NATO irrelevant by not posing a threat to neighbouring countries, have close trade and cultural relationships with European countries, not endanger those by starting wars in Europe, the like.
