I think any window of opportunity for a negotiated peace came and went long before Feb 24, 2022. As for endorsing annexation, that did not end very well in 1938-39. But perhaps that parallel is not valid here. We may never know.
I think this war only ends when Putin meets the grim reaper and somebody with a different agenda takes over in Moscow. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen (the other agenda, Russian agendas so far in history have a very mixed review).
I would prefer that:
- the war ends immediately
- Russia removes all of its forces from within Ukraine pre-2008 boundary
- Putin apologies and offers material support to Ukraine reconstruction
- Ukraine *FORGIVES* Putin and Russia
- people in Russia who want a more liberal socialism, move out of Russia and perhaps some to Ukraine
- people in Ukraine who want a more structured, traditional police state socialism (motives to reduce protests), move to Russia
- Russia learns how to develop topsoil rich farmland
- Russian and Ukraine learn how to get along
- Putin realizes that he cannot conquer every neighbor with whom he disagrees
- Biden, Putin, and Zelinsky resolve to accept that the days of being tough man on campus and winning the high school prom king crown, are self-destructing
I wish that people learned and practiced, the respect for each other’s privacy and property.
I wish that I never heard about any billionaire, about whom, I think it would be nice, if they were unknown in public life, but privately, they toured their country and elsewhere, dropping in from out of nowhere it seemed, to write a check that pays for a hospital bill.
Earth is not a spaceship in dire need of being rescued by people who do not shop at Walmart, as they imagine that they can control the earth’s thermostat and the level of the oceans.
Perhaps those guys might build “safe” thorium reactors for generating electricity, and thereby keep themselves occupied.
Back in the fall of 2022, some Russian general stook up against the corruption in Russia and in the Russian government, and in the Russian military, by stating:
The lying has got to stop.