At the Cato Institute, my friend, former contributor to this website, and current Director of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Justin Logan, describes the efforts of the “opponents” of peace in Ukraine, including Hillary Clinton, and their efforts to sink President Donald Trump’s plans to bring peace to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In describing critics of the peace process, Logan concludes:
These critics have always opposed diplomacy, even at the high-water mark for Ukraine. That was unquestionably the fall of 2022, when the Ukrainian counteroffensive had outperformed expectations. At the time, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed negotiations, noting that “military victory is probably in the true sense of the word, is maybe not achievable through military means. And therefore, you need to turn to other means.”
He was hooted down, including by the Biden administration, which was at pains to clarify that they were “not conducting negotiations of any kind.” Republicans at the time, including such as Senator Jim Risch (R‑ID), made clear they were “arm in arm” with the Biden administration on its approach to the war. By 2023, it was widely accepted that the Chairman had been right.
Would it be wonderful if Ukraine could find some way to negate its size, its geography, its demographics, and its neighbor? Of course. But politics is the art of the possible. Living next door to a great power across easy geography is a nasty business. That is why former Mexican leader Porfirio Diaz once lamented, “Poor Mexico: So far from God, and so close to the United States.”
The United States is far from Russia. Ukraine is not. Kyiv’s politics have to fit with its geography. Ukraine is being ground down on the battlefield, not because of any defect in its troops, but due to the problems of its size, population, and geography. Critics of the president’s diplomacy will point to the ugliness of the peace. They should be reminded of the ugliness of the war, and the absurdity of the fantasy that it can be won outright.
Read more here.
