https://www.wsj.com/articles/strategic-defe...inion_lead_pos1The human carnage and ruins of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, were on display this weekend after Russian troops withdrew. It’s a horror show, with bodies of unarmed civilians lying in the street, some reportedly shot in the back of the head. Some appear to have been executed. This is the gruesome legacy of Vladimir Putin’s invasion that the world will have to consider as part of its calculations as his war of attempted conquest continues.
Western journalists were able to see and confirm the Bucha destruction as they entered the suburb after the last Russian troops retreated on Friday. Russian tank columns had moved through the town as they sought to surround and lay siege to Kyiv from multiple directions. They were stopped by fierce Ukrainian resistance, but not before laying waste to much of the city and, on the visual evidence, murdering its trapped population.
Readers can see the bodies in the streets in videos online, which appear to be real. They are proof of the modern world as it is. For liberal internationalists who think military force is no longer a dominant force in human affairs, behold the dead in Bucha, where illusions about the “rules-based international order” are buried with the bodies.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, called Russia’s war a “genocide” on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, called the scenes from Bucha “a punch to the gut” on CNN, though he declined to call them war crimes. He said the U.S. will collect evidence in Ukraine and make a judgment.
There is already a strong prima facie case that Russia’s bombing of civilians is a war crime, even if it doesn’t meet the definition of genocide. Scenes like those in Bucha, Mariupol and Kharchiv will have to inform the extent of Ukrainian, and Western, cooperation with Mr. Putin even if he withdraws from all of Ukraine.
Is the U.S. really going to work with the Kremlin to implement another nuclear deal with Iran? And how is Russia still a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council? Its irrelevance in this conflict has exposed that the United Nations is worse than useless. It implicitly abets the world’s dictators by giving them political legitimacy.
The Russian withdrawal from the Kyiv region marks a setback for its original war aims, but it is still not a defeat for Mr. Putin. He might be regrouping his forces for another attempt on Kyiv later. Or perhaps he is changing his war aims to focus on conquering the east and south of the country. The Sunday bombardment by Russian ships suggests that Odessa, a city of about one million on the Black Sea, remains a Kremlin target.
Which makes it dismaying that Biden officials continue to assert that the war is a “strategic defeat” for Mr. Putin. They repeat the talking point as if they’re trying to persuade Americans that the war has already been won. “If you step back and look at this, this has already been a dramatic strategic setback for Russia and, I would say, a strategic defeat,” Mr. Blinken said on CNN Sunday.
No, it isn’t. Russia has killed thousands of Ukrainians, inflicted untold damage, and still controls more territory than it did before the invasion. If Mr. Putin secures a truce that ratifies those territorial gains, he will have snatched the part of Ukraine that contains the bulk of its energy resources. He would be able to re-arm and continue as a lethal threat to the rest of Ukraine, the Zelensky government, and the border nations of NATO.
This is no doubt why Mr. Zelensky continues to express frustration with the reluctance of the U.S. and NATO to provide the heavy weapons Ukraine needs to go on offense and retake lost territory. Leaks on the weekend suggest the U.S. may finally be helping to get old Russian tanks into Ukraine, but the country also needs advanced antiship missiles to protect Odessa, as well as aircraft to attack Russian tanks and artillery, and anti-aircraft systems.
The West’s goal shouldn’t be some abstract “strategic defeat” but an actual defeat that is obvious to everyone, including the Russian public. Ukraine will have to decide how long it is willing to fight. But as long as it is willing, the U.S. and NATO should provide all of the military and sanctions support it needs. If Mr. Putin gains from this war, there will be more invasions, more war crimes, and more horrific scenes like those in Bucha in the future.
კასპაროვის ედიტორიალი
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-told-the...inion_lead_pos6Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine is entering its sixth week, and the past few days have seen a rhetorical shift in Vladimir Putin’s goals. Since the Kremlin lies about everything, real evidence of a Russian retreat or any change in posture is always necessary. Still, it feels like confirmation of battlefield observations that the Russian army has been thwarted in its primary objectives and will now attempt to salvage a disastrous military effort with a successful negotiation. As my former world championship challenger Nigel Short once said about peace offerings, “If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out why he thinks he’s worse off.”
It would also fit Mr. Putin’s usual tactic of taking territory by force and then pivoting to diplomacy to secure his gains. Whether it’s feint or fiction, the pressure by Ukraine and its allies on Russia must only increase. Kharkiv and Mariupol now resemble the gutted ruins Mr. Putin created in Aleppo and Grozny. Yet the weapons Ukraine needs to stop long-range artillery, missile attacks and aerial bombing are still being held back by the U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations.
That should be the real story, not any controversy about President Biden saying Mr. Putin “cannot remain in power.” No free-world leader should hesitate to state plainly that the world would be a far better place if Mr. Putin were no longer in charge in Russia, and one way to help make that come about is to say it. Making it clear that Russia will be a pariah until Mr. Putin is gone is the best way to shake his support among elites, military commanders and ordinary Russians.
The problem came when the White House attempted to walk back the remark, calling it an ad lib that did not reflect a U.S. policy about “regime change” in Russia. This retreat added fuel to my concerns about an internal split in the White House between those who sense the opportunity to toss Mr. Putin into the dust bin of history and those who are afraid of any change in the status quo and who would rather deal with the devil they know.
The latter would be an echo of 1991, when President George H.W. Bush gave his infamous “Chicken Kyiv” speech, reportedly penned by Condoleezza Rice, cautioning Ukraine against rushing to independence from the Soviet Union. Three weeks later Ukraine ignored that advice and declared independence. The Soviet Union collapsed within months.
The updated 2022 recipe calls for keeping Mr. Putin at the negotiating table for the Iran nuclear deal and not giving Ukraine the jets and other offensive weapons it needs to win the war. Everything I hear from other NATO members is that the U.S. has become the obstacle, and an explanation is required. Allowing Mr. Putin to keep an inch of Ukrainian soil after bombing civilians should be unimaginable. Conceding large areas of eastern Ukraine to the invader in exchange for a cease-fire would only give Mr. Putin time to consolidate and rearm for next time—and there will always be a next time. No peace deal should weaken the strong sanctions that have finally arrived, eight years late.
The only drawback to the end of the Cold War was the loss of the moral clarity provided by a clear and present evil. Aside from a handful of fellow travelers and useful idiots, even Ronald Reagan’s critics couldn’t doubt the accuracy of his calling the Soviet Union “an evil empire” in a 1983 speech, as startling as it was to hear a politician speak so plainly in moral terms. It was also a tonic for those of us inside the Soviet Union to hear what we knew to be true said aloud by the leader of the free world.
Mr. Biden’s age may be a negative for some, but he remembers the Cold War. Gaffe or not, his remark reflected accurate instincts: Mr. Putin must go. But the war in Ukraine is also a distraction from his flailing domestic agenda. It’s hard to talk about economic and social issues in the U.S. when a real war is leading the news every night.
So who in Washington is calling the shots on Ukraine? If the Biden administration wants Ukraine to win, someone in the White House should say it and do what is necessary to make it possible. If the U.S. is offering deals to Mr. Putin or pressuring Ukraine to accept anything less than sovereignty over 100% of its territory, we should know. Tactical ambiguity can be useful, but a lack of strategic and moral unity and consistency leads to catastrophe.
Mr. Putin’s Russia is a bankrupt gas station run by a mafia that prefers to spend its time and money in London and New York. Offering any carrots to these war criminals would set the stage for a return to the appeasement and corruption that brought us to this deadly phase. It would also shake the foundation of collective defense in the region. As Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks told me last week, “We are afraid not of Russian tanks, but of Western weakness.”
The outcome in Ukraine will define a new world order, for good or ill. Taiwan and China are watching closely. Xi Jinping’s natural alliance with his fellow dictator is looking less attractive after the free world’s outpouring of support for Ukraine. The U.S. can restore its leadership of the free world, or it can lead from behind while democracy continues to lose ground.
The West fell asleep when the Cold War ended. Ukrainians are sacrificing everything to shake President Biden, the White House and the world awake.
Mr-Underwoodჯო ბაიდენისათვის ეს იყო უდიდესი პოლიტიკური ჯილდო, ომი.
შიდა პოლიტიკაში ტიპს ისე აქვს მძღნერში თავი გაყოფილი, ყველაფერში ფეილია, ეკონომიკაში და ინფლაციის კუთხით ხომ საერთოდ.
მარა როცა ასეთ ჯოჯოხეთს აწყობს ვოვა უკრაინაში, გასაგებია რომ ყურადღება იქეთ არის მედიის გადატანილი
ასევე განტევების ვაცი იპოვნა საარჩევნოდ, ვოვას ბრალია ყველაფერიო.
კასპაროვს კარგად უწერია თავის ედიტორიალში ეგ ყველაფერი
გამგები გაიგებს და მიხვდება
This post has been edited by პეტრუჩი on 4 Apr 2022, 06:06
ჯო ბაიდენი, Let's go Brandon!
