10 Comments

Great timing with this piece Ross.

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Ross, thanks for being a steady voice for diplomacy. We are six months into this war and both sides remain deadlocked. Billions have been tossed into the wind and thousands have died. This winter will be a grim reminder that the failure to exercise diplomacy in Ukraine will cause all of Europe to turn out their pockets just to stay warm. The callous short-sightedness of this folly boggles the mind.

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In terms of US interest, a retreat to isolationism, while surely appealing is not practical in a highly interconnected world. Allowing Putin's Russia to seize yet more energy-rich territory is foolish in the long term and only sets up further conflict.

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A peace deal is only workable in one of two cases:

1. One or more sides are exhausted militarily or in will to continue fighting.

2. All sides can be trusted to uphold said peace deal.

Neither of these conditions have been met.

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"It’s an acknowledgment, in some sense, that Putin has been rewarded for his vile belligerence."

That is how they look at it, but that is a wrong view. A reward is something given. What Putin has is what he will have taken. And the West is not the arbiter of all things.

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