Actually, it's a good time to go wobbly on Ukraine

Storer Rowley, former foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, gets a lot wrong on his Trib op-ed “America must stand firm against Russia. This is no time to go wobbly.”

He’s right to call Russia’s war brutal and criminal. But calling it “unprovoked” is ludicrous. He omits from his analysis US/NATO plans to extend NATO through Ukraine up to Russia’s borders, allowing nuclear weapons to be minutes away from Moscow. That is provocation on steroids. He ignores US support, encouragement of the 2014 coup that ousted Russian leaning Ukraine president Victor Yanukovych, setting off civil war with Russian speaking Ukrainians in the Donbas. Together, these provocations made Russia’s war, while illegal and criminal, inevitable.

Storer’s lauding President Biden’s diplomacy in the war is preposterous as Biden has explicitly prohibited diplomacy to negotiate a ceasefire and eventual peace settlement. Storer apparently considers diplomacy to include sending top UK and US officials to Kiev in March to instruct, demand actually, Ukraine President Zelensky cease negotiation with Russia and Turkey for a quick end to the war.

Storer is also wrong to disparage Republican and Democratic lawmakers calling for negotiations and ending America’s blank check of support currently soaring towards $100 billion. Unlike, Storer, they understand endless US weapons, with no negotiations, merely prolongs the war, ensuring Ukraine descends further into failed state status. Yet, Storer, like all perpetual war cheerleaders, minimizes the enormous Ukraine destruction enabled by US weapons prolonging the war. He further exaggerates Russian weakness to present a plausible scenario of a totally implausible Ukraine victory.

To bolster his case for endless US military support, Storer resorts to the preposterous charge all pro war pundits trot out, that Russia is hell bent to re-establish the Russian empire.

Finally, but possibly most important, Storer uses a rhetorical trick to claim the US populous supports unlimited military support with no negotiations. He cites a poll that supports “continuing humanitarian and security assistance to Ukraine.” But that poll refers neither to negotiations nor end to the blank check on weaponizing Ukraine. To the contrary, a recent poll conducted for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft found likely voters, by 57% to 32 %, strongly support US pursuing diplomatic negotiations as soon as possible to end the war even if it requires Ukraine making compromises with Russia.

If going wobbly on Ukraine means ending the war and further destruction of Ukraine by using sensible negotiations rather than a blank check on weapons prolonging it, I proclaim, “Let’s wobble.” Storer Rowley should as well.