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Washington Is Prolonging Ukraine's Suffering -- Washington’s refusal to acknowledge Russia’s legitimate security interests in Ukraine and negotiate an end to this war is the path to protracted conflict and human suffering.
The American Conservative ^ | December 20, 2022 | Colonel Douglas MacGregor

Posted on 12/20/2022 1:59:12 AM PST by Cathi

Douglas Macgregor

Dec 20, 2022 12:03 AM

During a speech given on November 29, Polish Vice-Minister of National Defense (MON) Marcin Ociepa said: "The probability of a war in which we will be involved is very high. Too high for us to treat this scenario only hypothetically." The Polish MON is allegedly planning to call up 200,000 reservists in 2023 for a few weeks’ training, but observers in Warsaw suspect this action could easily lead to a national mobilization.

Meanwhile, inside the Biden administration, there is growing concern that the Ukrainian war effort will collapse under the weight of a Russian offensive. And as the ground in Southern Ukraine finally freezes, the administration’s fears are justified. In an interview published in the Economist, head of Ukraine’s armed forces General Valery Zaluzhny admitted that Russian mobilization and tactics are working. He even hinted that Ukrainian forces might be unable to withstand the coming Russian onslaught.

Yet, Zaluzhny rejected any notion of a negotiated settlement and instead pleaded for more equipment and support. He went on to insist that with 300 new tanks, 600 to 700 new infantry fighting vehicles, and 500 new Howitzers, he could still win the war with Russia. Truthfully, General Zaluzhny is not asking for assistance, he’s asking for a new army. Therein lies the greatest danger for Washington and its NATO allies.

When things go badly for Washington’s foreign policy, the true believers in the great cause always draw deeply from the well of ideological self-delusion to steel themselves for the final battle. Blinken, Klain, Austin, and the rest of the war party continue to pledge eternal support for Kiev regardless of the cost. Like the “best and the brightest” of the 1960s they are eager to sacrifice realism to wishful thinking, to wallow in the splash of publicity and self-promotion in one public visit to Ukraine after another.

This spectacle is frighteningly reminiscent of events more than 50 years ago, when Washington’s proxy war in Vietnam was failing. Doubters within the Johnson administration about the wisdom of intervening on the ground to rescue Saigon from certain destruction went into hiding. In 1963, Washington already had 16,000 military advisors in Vietnam. The idea that Washington was supporting a government in South Vietnam that might not win against North Vietnam was dismissed out of hand. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said, “We will not pull out until the war is won.”

By the spring of 1965, American military advisors were already dying. General Westmoreland, then commander of Military Assistance Command Vietnam, reported to LBJ: “It is increasingly apparent that the existing levels of United States aid cannot prevent the collapse of South Vietnam... North Vietnam is moving in for the kill... Acting on the request of the South Vietnamese government, the decision must be made to commit as soon as possible 125,000 United States troops to prevent the Communist takeover.”

The Biden administration’s unconditional support for the Zelensky regime in Kiev is reaching a strategic inflection point not unlike the one LBJ reached in 1965. Just as LBJ suddenly determined in 1964 that peace and security in Southeast Asia was a vital U.S. strategic interest, the Biden administration is making a similar argument now for Ukraine. Like South Vietnam in the 1960s, Ukraine is losing its war with Russia.

Ukraine’s hospitals and morgues are filled to capacity with wounded and dying Ukrainian soldiers. Washington’s proxy in Kiev has squandered its human capital and considerable Western aid in a series of self-defeating counter-offensives. Ukrainian soldiers manning the defensive lines facing Russian soldiers in Southern Ukraine are brave men, but they are not fools. The Spartans at Thermopylae were brave, and they still died.

The real danger now is that Biden will soon appear on television to repeat LBJ’s performance in 1965, substituting the word "Ukraine" for "South Vietnam":

Tonight, my fellow Americans I want to speak to you about freedom, democracy, and the struggle of the Ukrainian people for victory. No other question so preoccupies our people. No other dream so absorbs the millions who live in Ukraine and Eastern Europe… However, I am not talking about a NATO attack on Russia. Rather, I propose to send a U.S. led coalition of the willing, consisting of American, Polish, and Romanian armed forces into Ukraine, to establish the ground equivalent of a “no-fly zone.” The mission I propose is a peaceful one, to create a safe zone in the Western most portion of Ukraine for Ukrainian Forces and refugees struggling to survive Russia’s devastating attacks…

Disaster wrapped in rhetoric is not the way to save the people of Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is not a Call of Duty fantasy. It is an enlargement of the human tragedy that NATO’s eastward expansion created. The victims do not live in North America. They live in a region that most Americans can't find on a map. Washington urged the Ukrainians to fight. Now Washington must urge them to stop.

NATO’s governments are divided in their thinking about the war in Ukraine. Except for Poland and, possibly, Romania, none of NATO’s members are in a rush to mobilize their forces for a long, grueling war of attrition with Russia in Ukraine. No one in London, Paris, or, Berlin wants to run the risk of a nuclear war with Moscow. Americans do not support going to war with Russia, and those few who do are ideologues, shallow political opportunists, or greedy defense contractors.

When U.S. forces finally withdrew from Southeast Asia, Americans thought that Washington would exercise greater restraint, recognize the limits of American power, and pursue a less militant, and more realistic foreign policy. Americans were mistaken then, but Americans and Europeans know now that Washington’s refusal to acknowledge Russia’s legitimate security interests in Ukraine and negotiate an end to this war is the path to protracted conflict and more human suffering.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Douglas Macgregor Douglas Macgregor, Col. (ret.) is a senior fellow with The American Conservative, the former advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration, a decorated combat veteran, and the author of five books.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: compromised; macritter; mtacniks; neocons4biden; notourwar; russia; swampniks; ukraine; ukraineslushfund; unitedstates; vatnik; zelenskyworshippers
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To: BroJoeK
The USA has no moral authority at all.

The USA (partial list)

  1. Collects political prisoner and holds them without due process
  2. Has combined the Govt. and the MSM into one giant propaganda machine
  3. Lies and lies and lies
  4. Is Trillions in debt
  5. Open border
  6. No tariffs and offshores critical industry.
  7. Has a federal police that has a pattern of arresting only one party's leaders and members at gunpoint and leaves the party of favor alone to commit all kinds of crime.
  8. Social media and the Fredstapo are in bed and suppress one partys' message and members.

101 posted on 12/21/2022 11:42:15 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: BroJoeK

Wrong. Brandon stole the election and is not my president. I will never acknowledge nor respect him. I didn’t watch his fake “inauguration”, nor have I watched any of his speeches.

You claim that the US is “loved” everywhere, yet the US is the target of protests, angry criticism and terrorism. I constantly read Anti-American posts from all parts of the world. Western Europeans hold the US in great contempt.

I watch the World Cup matches. I remember vividly when the US played Iran in France. The mostly French spectators LOUDLY cheered for Iran. I despise the arrogant and obnoxious Western Europeans.

I don’t know what the term “orc” means, but I know that your use of the term is blatant racist hate speech against Russians. The FR Ukrainian fan club would be more than happy to commit Genocide against every Russian on the planet. I vehemently object to your racism and hatred for the Russian people.

I would rather our money and troops be used to defend our wide open Southern border. The US is being invaded, but the FR Ukrainian Fan Club doesn’t give a damn. You only care about the borders of your precious Ukraine. The US is BANKRUPT. We don’t have the money to keep sending to the tiny little grifter Zelensky and his shopping crazy wife.

Screw Ukraine. They aren’t worth WW3. Let’s focus on our on dying country and our open borders.


102 posted on 12/21/2022 5:25:11 PM PST by CrimsonTidegirl (The fate of all mankind, I see, is in the hands of fools.- King Crimson)
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To: packrat35
packrat35: "And it costs ME money.
Billions of dollars are flowing to the corrupt regime in Ukraine and it is being pissed away."

Meanwhile Democrats in Congress have voted $ trillions, not just $ billions, in Democrat vote-buying or election rigging schemes, while the Democratic administration opens the floodgates to illegal immigration of millions of new Democrat voters.

Compared to the destructiveness of Democrats, nothing in Ukraine is a big deal -- except if orcs win and absorb Ukraine.
Then we will see a vastly larger, stronger, reborn aggressive Russian Empire.
We will also see increased aggression from every other ruthless dictator, beginning with Xi-snake.

We will not like that, and Ukraine is our opportunity to prevent it.

103 posted on 12/23/2022 7:12:53 AM PST by BroJoeK (future DDG 134 -- we remember)
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To: central_va
central_va: "The USA has no moral authority at all. "

Yes, I agree with all of your points, and hopefully good Republicans will figure out how to fix all that.

But in the meantime, nobody needs "moral authority" to kill orcs, any more than to hunt down & shoot rabid dogs.
It's not a question of "moral authority" when the alternative is death & enslavement.

We will suffer the consequences of Ukrainian defeat not just in the old Russian Empire, but everywhere else brutal dictators eye their weaker neighbors.

We will not like that world and Ukraine is our opportunity to help prevent it.

No extra "moral authority" is required.

104 posted on 12/23/2022 7:27:46 AM PST by BroJoeK (future DDG 134 -- we remember)
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To: CrimsonTidegirl
CrimsonTidegirl: " Wrong. Brandon stole the election and is not my president.
I will never acknowledge nor respect him.
I didn’t watch his fake “inauguration”, nor have I watched any of his speeches."

I don't know exactly who stole what, but suspect you are right and, of course, I also never watch Bite-me, ah... bite me.

CrimsonTidegirl: " You claim that the US is “loved” everywhere, yet the US is the target of protests, angry criticism and terrorism.
I constantly read Anti-American posts from all parts of the world.
Western Europeans hold the US in great contempt."

Well, of course, people everywhere, especially Europeans, just love for Americans to do their dirty work, so they can sit back like critics at a theater and criticise us for too much "this" and not enough "that".
But remember, critics make their livings by going to shows.
If America stopped putting on "shows" for them to criticize, then they'd have to learn new skills, and of course they don't really want that.
So they are not as hostile as might seem.

CrimsonTidegirl: "I watch the World Cup matches.
I remember vividly when the US played Iran in France.
The mostly French spectators LOUDLY cheered for Iran.
I despise the arrogant and obnoxious Western Europeans. "

Arguably, the French were always the worst, going all the way back to Charles DeGaulle, in WWII.
DeGaulle's big problem was that Nazis had not just defeated France, they had run over and humiliated the French and so DeGaulle took on a very "touchy" personality which he intended to make the world respect the French, but in reality made many just hate DeGaulle instead.

So the French have long been critical and independent minded and don't much care what we say or feel.
Other nationalities feel differently.

CrimsonTidegirl: " I don’t know what the term “orc” means, but I know that your use of the term is blatant racist hate speech against Russians.
The FR Ukrainian fan club would be more than happy to commit Genocide against every Russian on the planet.
I vehemently object to your racism and hatred for the Russian people."

No, no, I love and admire Russians, such as yourself.
I'm certain in other contexts you and they are good, decent & capable people.
So my word "orcs" does not refer to Russians, but only to the rabid dogs of many nationalities who invaded Ukraine.
They need to be hunted down and killed, or captured or driven back to whatever country they came from.

So, this has nothing to do with peace loving Russians, only with the wild rabid beasts running loose and destroying Ukraine.
Nothing good can come from letting them continue ravage Ukraine.

You disagree?

CrimsonTidegirl: " I would rather our money and troops be used to defend our wide open Southern border.
The US is being invaded, but the FR Ukrainian Fan Club doesn’t give a damn. "

I am sorry, but you sound utterly confused -- our open border is not for lack of money, there's plenty of money to do the job, if the administration wanted to.
But of course, they don't care.
Indeed their policy is to bring in as many new Democrat voters as humanly possible, so as to guarantee single party Democratic top-down rule forever.

You understand that, don't you?
Lack of money is not the problem on our border.

CrimsonTidegirl: "You only care about the borders of your precious Ukraine.
The US is BANKRUPT.
We don’t have the money to keep sending to the tiny little grifter Zelensky and his shopping crazy wife."

No, the U.S. is far from bankrupt, we still have unlimited $ trillions for Democrats to spend buying the next election and helping illegal immigrants increase Democrats' voter base.
A few $ billions sent to help Ukrainians kill orcs is a mere drop in the bucket compared to that.

The reason I care about Ukraine is because madman Putin's Russia is now a rabid beast and if it "eats" up Ukraine it will soon enough come looking for new "meals" to gobble up.
And not just Russia, the world is chock full of little two-bit, tin-horn dictators hungrily looking around for little neighbors to devour.

We will not like that world and Ukraine is our opportunity to prevent it.

CrimsonTidegirl: " Screw Ukraine.
They aren’t worth WW3.
Let’s focus on our on dying country and our open borders."

Of course, we have to do both -- good people have to figure out how to defeat Democrats politically at home and also how to kill orcs in Ukraine.

As for World War Three, arguably the Cold War was WWIII, and this is just a continuation of that.
But if Putin starts throwing nukes around, it will prove that my words "orc" and "mad dog" are accurate, and will destroy Russia's future.

105 posted on 12/23/2022 8:50:24 AM PST by BroJoeK (future DDG 134 -- we remember)
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To: trebb
when they lionized the stand-up comic who became incredibly wealthy over a few years of “governing” and pushed his staged productions out as “news from a hero”.

Zelenskyy is good enough as the guy who kept his nerve in Feb/March

You say "he became incredible wealthy over a few years of governing" -- what proof do you have for this?

Zelensky never was a billionaire. He was, before his Presidency and even now is worth roughly $20 million -- His main asset: an estimated 25% stake in Kvartal 95, a group of companies that produce humorous shows, which he transferred to his partners after being elected president, though he’ll likely regain his shares after leaving office. Kvartal 95 produced and owns the Servant of the People series, a popular political comedy starring Zelensky as a Ukrainian high school teacher who is elected president. Netflix, which previously streamed the show between 2017 and 2021, snapped up the rights again in March.

Zelensky did own a $4.6 million villa in Forte dei Marmi, Italy as of December 2019, according to the most recent filing by his holding company. He apparently sold it during 2020 (it had shown up in his declarations for 2018 and 2019 but not 2020) along with a small plot of land and 5 hotel rooms in Georgia (popular upper-middle-class investments in Ukraine)

There is zero evidence for any other wealth or assets

Don't just believe the Russian propagandists - you are far too smart to be taken in by them again

106 posted on 02/09/2023 4:26:57 AM PST by Cronos
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To: daniel1212

Updated link 4 form enhancer https://web.archive.org/web/20240302202337/http://cynwoody.appspot.com/fr_posting_form_enhancer.html


107 posted on 10/01/2024 5:23:02 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves damned+destitute sinners on His acct, believe, b baptized+follow HIM)
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