Ukraine: give me a viable, constructive, effective solution and I'll support it - but where is it?

 

I'm getting very tired of all the hot air from those who blindly support Ukraine in its war with Russia.  Yes, Russia was the aggressor.  Yes, Ukraine is entitled to defend itself, and fight to reinstate its territorial integrity.  However, in what imaginary universe do you see Ukraine actually being able to accomplish that?  Show me a practical means for them to succeed, and I'll support it - but for the life of me, I can't see one.

It's no good telling me that "Putin is a liar and a murderer. It is impossible to accommodate him."  You're absolutely right.  He's all that and more.  However, what are you going to do to stop him that doesn't involve - at the very least - a wider European war, and might even deteriorate into a nuclear exchange?  What practical, realistic ways are there to do anything but accommodate at least some of what Putin wants?  Show me!

Stand on principle, you say?  Slava Ukraini!  Be brave like Ukraine! - but who, precisely, is to be brave, and for what reason?  Ukrainians are, indeed, courageous in their resistance.  They've also lost almost an entire generation of their younger people, enough to cripple their nation demographically for the next couple of decades at least, if not longer.  Who else are you telling to be brave?  Our own young people?

I asked at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war:  "Someone please tell me: what compelling national security interest does the USA have in Ukraine???"  I said in that article:

There is no, repeat, NO reason for Americans to lose their lives to defend a corrupt, incompetent regime in Ukraine.  We have no compelling or vital national security interest to defend there.

. . .

Afghanistan wasn't worth the thousands of American lives it cost to conquer and occupy it.  Ukraine isn't worth even one American life, because there's nothing there that we need or want, and nothing that's of direct and immediate importance to us.  Let the Ukrainians and the Russians sort it out.  It's their business.  If Europe wants to get involved, let them.  They're near enough to the problem for it to be their business.  We aren't.

The only way to obtain a peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine is to make it so costly for either or both parties to continue that they both realize they can't win in the long run:  that it's better to cut their losses and make peace now, on the best terms they can get.  Judging from the conduct and pronouncements of both sides, they aren't there yet, and are unlikely to get there unless something unforeseen happens.

That being the case, why the pressure to continue and even increase US involvement in that conflict?  Such involvement cannot and will not resolve the crisis unless and until both sides are willing to reach a settlement.  Putin can't, because he thinks (possibly correctly) that his own people would remove him from power if he spent so many Russian lives, and destroyed so much of Russia's economy and armed forces, for no worthwhile result.  Zelensky can't, because he's wiped out a generation of his own people (to the extent of having his bully boys kidnap anyone off the street who looks able to fight, and sending him off to the front lines with minimal training and little hope of survival).  Many of his own people hate and resent him, and would like nothing better than to replace him.  Both leaders are more focused on their own survival (and, of course, their own corrupt enrichment) than on the needs of their people and their nation.

So, if you're one of those demanding that we get more involved, and force a solution upon the combatants . . . how?  Tell me how.  Show me that your solution is practical, feasible, and will work, and will not cost American lives to put it in place.  If the latter is impossible, convince American families that it'll be worth their while to bury their sons and daughters for a war in which our nation has no compelling national security interest of our own.

If you can't do both of those things, kindly shut up and let the adults work undisturbed.  Cloud cuckoo land is thataway.  What we need right now is realpolitik - and it's not to be found there.

Peter