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President Biden should not pass off failed US proxy war against Russia to Trump presidency A wise aphorism advises ‘Finish what you start.’ That
should certainly apply President Biden finishing up the colossal
military blunder he began early in his presidency. A half century cold
warrior in Congress, the Vice Presidency, culminating in the presidency,
Biden tried to weaken Russia by using his Ukraine proxies to keep
Russia out of the Western European political economy. He
spent his entire term seeking that goal, only to have it backfire
spectacularly. He’s accomplished nothing except largely destroying
Ukraine as a functioning, democratic nation. With Russia he’s
accomplished the opposite. Russia has gained prestige, power, a vibrant
economy and near total control over a fifth of Ukraine that will never
return to Kyiv’s rule. How
Biden could be so shortsighted, so wrong, so stupid will forever remain
a mystery. But he does have an opportunity in his last 70 days to
finish his failed project with a win-win negotiated settlement before
Donald Trump takes office. He
needs to inform Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky that US weapons,
keeping the proxy war bleeding, will be cutoff, requiring Zelensky to
sue for peace. The only thing those weapons accomplish is continued
slaughter of the Ukraine military and further degradation of the Ukraine
nation. The
settlement will be a huge embarrassment for Biden and the US national
security state. But it will end the dying and begin the process of
rebuilding the roughly 80% of Ukraine that Russia neither wants nor can
conquer like the 20% on their border never to return to Ukraine
sovereignty. Ending
the war, or at least starting the peace process, will take one major
crisis from Trump’s overcrowded foreign policy plate. Since Trump often
speaks on opposite sides of every foreign entanglement, we have no idea
how he will handle the Ukraine war once in power. During
the campaign he bragged he’d end it in one day starting by ending the
US weapons train to Ukraine. But he just announced Rep. Mike Waltz to be
his National Security Advisor. Uber hawk Waltz never encountered a US
military misadventure he didn’t relish. Waltz’ favors ramping up
sanctions enforcement on Russia which has not hurt Russia one iota in 33
months of war. Much worse, he supports allowing Ukraine to use using
long range US, NATO-weapons to strike deep inside Russia. That’s not a
plan to end the war in 24 hours. It’s an unhinged recipe for igniting
nuclear winter in 24 hours. Achieving
peace in Ukraine in his remaining weeks would allow Biden to partially
salvage his disastrous foreign policy record. Largely destroying
Ukraine, enabling the worst genocide in this century in Gaza, endlessly
escalating tensions with China that could explode into war, represents
one of the worst foreign policy records in US history. There
would be neat historical symmetry between Biden and Trump if Biden does
initiate a Ukraine peace agreement. In Trump’s last year he inked a
deal with the Taliban to end America’s 20 yearlong Afghan war. Biden
wisely and courageously followed thru to complete it in his first year.
It would be cool if Biden could reciprocate and leave office with a
peace deal for Trump to simply sign off on. If Biden ended one war, he’s capable of ending a second. Come on Joe…say it’s so. |