Chicago Tribune pitches perpetual proxy war in Ukraine

 

Daniel DePetris’ Tribune commentary ‘Forget about diplomacy. Putin’s annexation guarantees a longer war’ is a masterwork in disinformation and misdirection.

It frames Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, into the Russian Federation, solely as an attempt to achieve victory from current Russian failures in its war against Ukraine. It further claims the annexation will make negotiations to end the war impossible.

But DePetris ignores the US role that looms large in both premises. A more likely case can be made that the annexation became inevitable when the US blew up the tentative 15 point March peace agreement brokered by NATO member Turkey that could have ended the war in its first month. Ukraine president Zelensky even hinted at such an agreement in a speech to his people.

But first, UK PM Boris Johnson, then US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, hurried to Kyiv to disabuse Zelensky of any agreement. It was critical for the US to force Ukraine to stay in the war to prevent Russia from having any role to play in the European political economy, thousands of Ukrainians needlessly being killed in the process be damned. That expands the Russo Ukraine war into a US proxy war against Russia.

DePetris’ second premise, that annexation makes negotiations impossible, is ludicrous. Further, it’s harrowing in its acceptance, indeed justification, that the Russo Ukraine war is now America’ newest perpetual war, the first of which that may go nuclear.

It’s ludicrous because it posits that Zelensky has neither ability nor desire to pursue negotiations. That ignores the fact that Zelensky is totally dependent on US intelligence, logistics and tens of billions in weaponry to continue the war one day longer. Should the US make further assistance dependent on initiating negotiations to end the war, Zelensky would be on the phone to Russian president Putin within hours.

It’s harrowing because DePetris leaves us with no path to peace. By claiming that only Putin and Zelensky can end this war, he obliterates the universal peace process that ends virtually every war save the few in which one side obliterates the other. That is unlikely in Ukraine. What is truly harrowing is that the Chicago Tribune, thru its foreign policy spokesperson DePetris, is pointing the way to eventual nuclear confrontation.