At this point, the biggest obstacle to peace may be American policymakers’ egos. From James W. Carden at theamericanconservative.com:
Russia looks ready to negotiate—so why escalate?
In his memoir, A Life in Our Times, the venerable economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted that he came to view politics not as the “art of the possible” but rather as a choice “between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
As things stand today, a similar choice—between a disastrous escalation or an unpalatable settlement—appears to be the only one on offer for Ukraine. And thanks to a number of developments over the course of the past two weeks, it is becoming clear that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his sponsors in Washington are increasingly intent on choosing the former over the latter—even as it has come to light, courtesy of a May 24 report from Reuters, that Putin himself “is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognizes the current battlefield lines.”
As the tide of the war has turned, perhaps permanently, in Russia’s favor (itself an entirely foreseeable development despite the wishful thinking that has characterized too much of what passes for informed analysis here in Washington), Ukraine’s Western sponsors find themselves scrambling to find a way to halt Russia’s momentum. For their part, Biden, Blinken and Sullivan have decided to reverse course—despite public assurances to the contrary—by secretly sending long range ATACMS to Kiev and lifting the (wise) prohibition against the use of American weapons to strike inside Russian territory—a prohibition Germany has likewise lifted.
Additionally, it was reported on May 30th that Washington will soon offer Kiev a bilateral security pact, said to be “the most significant in a series of deals Ukraine has struck with Nato countries” with Washington agreeing to provide long term military and financial assistance to Kiev, including, according to the Financial Times, military training, intelligence sharing and economic assistance.
They have to double down on the conquer Russia delusions and protect the cookie jar?
Lots of shekels on the line for the UNI-Party in 404.
Read earlier that Ukes scored first fighter jet strike on Russian territory so there is no dialing it back yet.
WWIII by any means necessary and there is some debate about that quote from Sun Tzu of an evil ruler will burn down his own nest [nation] just to rule over the ashes.
That WAR mayhem and chaos genie wish might not want to go back in the bottle after unleashed?
This just in from Invasion:
Approaching Cauldron Of Horror
Just found a picture of some NATO apparatchik giving a thumbs up to parceled out to various countries Russia wall map and a caption about “Decolonization” of Russian Federation. (h/t-EWG)
As they intend to colonize it!
Thick is the irony as Yoda would say.
The map is called Northern Eurasia 2023.
It looks like Stoltenberg but Not Sure.
Yea, good luck with that.
This just in from Bill Conti:
Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky)