Peace In Our Time

Russia invaded Ukraine and has committed war crimes and atrocities. That you think they’re willing to negotiate shows a level of naïveté that makes me glad you’re out of elective office. https://t.co/OL6UfLIuJg

— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) October 25, 2022

I think the Amash position is slightly stronger than this, but it still assumes a good faith interest in negotiation on the part of Putin.

Say what you will (and I will) about him, but Poppy Bush was pretty good at international diplomacy.  Better than his son, who got railroaded into invading Iraq by Dick Cheney (why I will never trust his daughter Liz, who is a chip off the old block.  Dick thought he was saving the Republic by becoming "dictator" (in the old Roman sense) of the country.  Liz is right about Trump; but that doesn't make her right about everything else.  She still thinks her father was right, too.).  Anyway, Poppy garnered an international coalition to respond to Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait (mostly because Hussain didn't have nuclear weapons, a lesson North Korea quickly learned; as well as Iran).  He didn't negotiate with Hussein, except to tell him to pull out (although during one diplomatic visit Hussein got what he thought was the green light to invade Kuwait, and that was under Bush's Administration, so...oops!).  Bush recognized an invasion is not negotiated; it is physically opposed.

For the U.S to negotiate with Putin is to play Chamberlain to Putin's Hitler, and give away the Sudetenland some portion of Ukraine.  Although which portion now is hard to tell, as Russia is retreating from so much of what they captured. I don't see, in other words, how we do that.  Besides, Russia is stirring talk of nuclear weapons again precisely to scare the West into negotiating a Russian victory (will Putin actually do it?  No, I don't think so.).  Why reward bad behavior?  Like Hitler learned with Chamberlain, Putin would then just invade another country (him and what army?  I mean, seriously.) and threaten a "dirty bomb" again to get away with it.

As it stands Russia is engaged in state terrorism, bombing civilian sites in Kyiv and destroying utility infrastructure to make life miserable for the remaining Ukrainians (as if life under Russian occupation, so recently chased out, was a picnic).  Do we reward that with a quid pro quo?

This doesn't need to end with the demise of Russia, anymore than Poppy entered Iraq after it was forced to withdraw from Kuwait.  But we aren't even fighting this war.  Sending arms doesn't really buy us the authority to drag Ukraine to the negotiating table.  All we're really doing is enriching arms merchants at taxpayer expense; it's a worthy investment, but not exactly "blood and treasure."

Reminder that peace [sic] talks and ceasefires [lol] only allow Russia to continue this terror and ethnic cleansing against Ukrainian civilians out of sight and, hope Putin and his appeasers, largely out of mind as from 2014-2022. https://t.co/QDP9tOPq8T

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) October 25, 2022

Meanwhile, can we please see more of Pete Buttigieg, please?

Pete Buttigieg on Colbert: "Many congressional Republicans take stances that seem to be more about the problem than about the solution ... can anybody name the top 5 things they've suggested to fight inflation? Can anyone name 3? How about 1?" pic.twitter.com/uKwYEXdW4x

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2022

I mean, I know the Russians are counting on the GOP taking the House so Russia can go back to invading Ukraine without an army but also without so much interference. Seems to me the cure to that now is Buttigieg.

It couldn't hurt.