Magical Thinking About Putin's Invasion

[babylonsister]

The American Prospect
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Magical Thinking About Putin’s Invasion
By pretending that NATO is not already at war with Russia, we’ve let Putin define the terms of engagement, at the tragic expense of Ukraine.
by Robert Kuttner
March 22, 2022

People examine the damage after the shelling of a shopping center, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 21, 2022. Eight people were killed in the attack.


The purely military part of Russia’s invasion has hit a stalemate. The Russian advance has stalled, thanks to heroic resistance by Ukrainians and defensive weapons supplied by NATO. But this is small comfort.

The West, out of fear of wider war, has allowed Putin to define what counts as a NATO war with Russia. Thus, the Biden administration has gotten into hair-splitting exercises, in which supplying the West’s most sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons does not count as a war with Russia, but supplying planes does.

This is dangerous sophistry. It has led to a proxy war between NATO and Russia, in which the West is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian, but in a limited way that doesn’t allow Ukraine to prevail or even to survive.


snip//

Sooner or later, NATO will have to give Ukraine planes powerful enough to annihilate Russia’s invading armies. It might as well be sooner.

Otherwise, we will reach a level of disaster where even more direct military engagement against Putin will be necessary. And that will be even riskier.

more...

https://prospect.org/world/magical-thinking-about-putins-invasion/

[FreepFryer]

1. The idea that only NATO planes can or will stop the war - and not escalate it - is magical thinking.

Apt title.

[patricia92243]

4. Yes! n/t

[SheltieLover]

2. Sophistry is always dangerous

[gab13by13]

3. This article sounds to me like right wing talking points.

I guarantee that the Putin Party (GQP) will use this talking point in the 2022 election, that president Biden was weak, that he didn't do enough to help Ukraine, and here we have it front and center on DU.

[babylonsister]

5. For starters,

Robert L. Kuttner is an American journalist and writer whose works present a liberal/progressive point of view. Kuttner is the co-founder and current co-editor of The American Prospect, which was created in 1990 as an "authoritative magazine of liberal ideas," according to its mission statement. Wikipedia

Maybe it grinds because he's telling the truth as he sees it.

Very tough call for President Biden; I'm glad he's trying diplomacy...we shall see how far that gets him.

[gab13by13]

8. Kuttner is wrong,

I'm sticking with president Biden, he has done a fabulous job keeping our allies and NATO united and also has not escalated the war which is what Mr. Kuttner is suggesting.

I'm sorry but this MiG jet situation is being repeated every day on Fox News, it's one of their talking points. Furthermore, most of the damage being done to Ukraine isn't being done by bombs from aircraft.

[David__77]

6. I am so glad this person is not president.

I’ve never seen such insane geopolitical discourse as that around this conflict.

[Scrivener7]

7. Putin is signalling pretty clearly that he does not want to stop with Ukraine.

Also that he's bat-shit. So yes, whatever can be done to keep this in Ukraine, sad as that is to say.