I want to help you change your thinking and escape from this trap you are in. You overvalue words and undervalue reality. Words can’t be a win or not. They are just words.
Now let’s look at this statement in stages. First, freezing the current lines. As I’m sure you know, a significant part of the Kursk Oblast is under Ukrainian control. That’s in Russia. What is the likelihood that Putin will even contemplate that? I’d say there’s no likelihood. Also, please read the post I wrote earlier today about Russia’s obligations to North Korea and Iran. What’s to happen to those? All this clearly demonstrates that the line about freezing the conflict is just that, a line. It’s aimed at looking at the reaction and then proceeding with the next step.
As for Ukraine’s membership in the NATO, I think we can all agree that there’s no chance the US will send American soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Right? So what did Biden’s oft-repeated promises to invite Ukraine to the NATO after Ukraine wins the war mean? They mean that Ukrainian soldiers, currently the most trained and effective in Europe, will be sent to die in American wars in the Middle East. I’m clearly opposed to that. I would much prefer that the NATO be disbanded and we all accept the reality that it’s a fiction. Then we can move on from these maddening fictions and adapt to the existing reality.
So to return to the point where we started, let’s step away from overvaluing words and start inhabiting reality.
Clarissa's Blog 
I think a lot of people, including me, didn’t realize that the objectives of America and Ukraine in this war are different. Ukraine wants to defend itself against this invasion and defeat Russia. America wants to…bleed Russia dry without having “boots on the ground”? Also sever Russia-Europe ties and reorient Europe towards America? German manufacturing has collapsed. Their model of being a high end export-oriented manufacturing economy with cheap energy from Russia is no more. They’re now buying gas at 3x the prices from america and celebrating america/ukraine blowing up the nordstream pipeline. This is national suicide for germany, and for what?
From the american point of view, mission accomplished?
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I think it’s actually worse than this, to be entirely honest. If I thought there were an actual plan, a strategy to benefit America, I’d be happier. But it looks to me that there hasn’t been a strategy. Biden and Harris both pressured Ukraine to give up at once back in 2022. They have leaked Ukrainian counteroffensives, they have done everything to not bleed Russia dry. They have funded Iran. I want to believe in a grand strategy but what I’m seeing instead is senile, decrepit wriggling without any consistent thinking about anything.
My strong belief is that both Obama and Biden just simply wanted the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to go away in whatever shape so that they could concentrate on the large-scale refashioning of America and their obsessive interest in the Middle East.
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“have done everything to not bleed Russia dry”
I still haven’t found a better explanation than my ‘trying to save russia from itself’ idea. It explains a lot.
Ukraine stops a massive russian offensive cold and immediately US money/weapons dry up…. the whole west is terrified of the idea of russian defeat because in their minds that means russian collapse and chaos. And, they refuse to perceive russia’s real longterm goal – to humiliate and dominate them. And it’s not like russia tries to hide it or anything… they’re very open and upfront about that.
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It’s totally trying to save Russia from itself. There’s a terror of what happens if the world order changes. But it already changed while we were sitting here, cowering in fear.
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Trying to save Russia from itself? Weren’t the sanctions supposed to destroy the russian economy? They just happened to backfire. Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean the intent wasn’t there.
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There were no real sanctions. It’s all a mirage, like most of what the Dems do.
The only sanctions that will work is energy independent US that exports oil and gas aggressively. That’s the best sanctions on Russia. Everything else is fiction.
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Good points Clarissa. All these talks of agreements, treaties, memorandums, are as valuable as toilet paper in the world we now live in.
Unfortunately, nuclear proliferation is the only thing so far that can guarantee ultimate protection. Ukraine needs nukes and a reliable way to deliver them directly to Moscow. They can already bomb Moscow and I’m sure they could develop nukes fairly quickly.
A good way to start “negotiations” with Russia might be to make it clear Ukraine will go nuclear. Putin will listen to that.
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Why do you keep denying the obvious reality that NATO is the only reason World War III has been avoided in Europe for the past 75 years?
Dreidel
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“NATO is the only reason World War III has been avoided in Europe”
NATO is not what it once was…. Western European countries have dragged their feet and were happy to let it be a US show (while looking down on the US) and the US was basically OK with that (did the US really want Germany to re-arm?)
But NATO only works if the US is on board and, to be frank, no country trusts the US anymore (for good reason).
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How has WWIII been avoided when we have North Korea and Iran fighting Ukraine on behalf of Russia?
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“How has WWIII been avoided”
Oh it’s already started… the beginning of a World War is a process not a single event and the russian invasion of Ukraine is either the first significant clash of WWIII or perhaps a prelude (a bit like the Spanish Civil War) in which the lines of demarcation begin to be set.
A unified _hard_ response (or better policies and politicians ahead of time) could have stopped it but that was way too much to expect from the likes of Biden (for that matter Obama and Trump) and western EU leaders.
So… WWIII it is.
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