Latest Chicago Tribune editorial on Ukraine war disconnected from war’s reality

Latest Chicago Tribune editorial on Ukraine war disconnected from war’s reality

The editorial ‘The Trump-Putin breakup and why it matters’ offers nothing of value regarding the nature of the war or the way forward to end it.

The Trib’s lack of historical perspective on the nature of the war is astonishing.

It presents as fact that Putin woke up in early 2022 and decided to conquer all of Ukraine as first step in recreating the Soviet Union. That ignores 23 years of NAT0 Expansion beginning in 1999, eight years after the Soviet Union dissolved. Fourteen nations were added with no strategic reason whatsoever except to weaken, isolate Russia from the European political economy.

In 2008 the US and NATO sought to add Ukraine, a step Russia declared was an existential threat to Russian security that would never be allowed. Ukraine NATO membership was always problematical due to Ukraine’s corrupt governance. But the US kept that goal percolating, especially by sponsoring the 2014 coup that ousted Russian friendly Ukraine President Victor Yanukovych.

The coup precipitated a separatist movement in the Donbas by Russian speaking Ukrainians whose Russian culture was being crushed violently by Kyiv. This began an 8 year effort by Russia requesting, pleading, begging the US and NATO to address its valid security concerns of both no NATO for Ukraine and peaceful autonomy for Russians in Donbas.

The US answer to Russia 3 months before the invasion was that Russia’s security concerns were not up for discussion…period. The US knew this would provoke a Russian invasion they foolishly believed could be crushed. All that accomplished was turn Ukraine into a failed state with no hope of prevailing.

That 14 year sorrowful saga of US/NATO provocations over Ukraine refutes the fantasy of unprovoked Russian aggression.

But it’s the Trib’s prescription for victory that truly astonishes: more sanctions and Tomahawk missiles. The Trib ignores reality that Russia has been swatting away draconian US sanctions like so many pesky files for over three and a half years without an iota of evidence they will ever work. The Trib ignores that Trump brushed aside President Zelensky request For Tomahawks this month for 2 very good reasons: they will not deter Ukraine’s collapse on the battlefield and they could lead to a US Russia nuclear confrontation

The Trib Editorial Board, by promoting a futile continuation of a war that is lost, only guarantees endless more Ukrainian casualties, lost territory, and more squandered US/NATO treasure better spent uplifting the domestic commons.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn, IL