As the Russian war in Ukraine drags on, three phrases have become a constant political drumbeat: “fight for democracy”; “as long as it takes”; and “until Ukraine wins.” Each phrase is vague, bordering on incoherent; together, those phrases are leading the West down the primrose path to endless quagmire.
There are clear Western interests in Ukraine: prevention of Russian aggression across borders; degradation of the Russian military, so as to undercut future aggression; deterrence of China from taking similar action in Taiwan; and solidification of the European alliance against both Russia and China. The West has achieved virtually all of these goals: The chances that Kyiv falls to Moscow are now essentially zero.
Yet, the West, in maintaining that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy must lead all negotiations, has now boxed itself in. It does so on the basis, first, of the “fight for democracy.” This is wrong on both practical and political levels. Practically, as mentioned, Ukrainian democracy is not likely to fall to Russia – and the greatest future threats to Ukrainian democracy will likely be internal corruption. Politically, no one believes that the West will maintain an open-ended war against Russia in order to preserve “democracy” – the West abandoned Afghanistan’s nascent democracy after a 20-year effort to the tender predations of the Taliban.
The West has also said that it will maintain the war “as long as necessary.” This, too, is a lie – and everyone, including Russia, knows it. After Iraq and Afghanistan, does anyone believe that the West will keep up funding to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars?
Finally, the West says that Ukraine must “win.” But by most metrics, the West has already won. The West has little interest in toppling Putin – if, for example, the Wagner Group had taken over Russia, that would not have been a positive step in favor of world peace. And all of its original goals have been largely attained.
The question is what the West’s interest are now. The West knows, for example, that this war will not end with all Russian troops leaving historic Ukrainian territory. Ukraine will not wind up in control of Crimea, or all of the Luhansk and Donetsk region; Ukraine’s vaunted counteroffensive has made less progress than originally projected, because aggressive war is more difficult than defensive war. Yet the West continues to maintain that any end to this conflict must be negotiated by Zelenskyy, who has said that the war will not end until all Ukrainian territory is liberated of Russian presence.
So, what would an end to the war look like? Everyone has known the answer to this question for over a year: Ukraine preserves her sovereignty, and is given Western guarantees of defense, including possible membership in NATO; Russian control of Crimea and parts of Donbas is confirmed. Such a deal, imposed from the outside, would also give Zelenskyy an off-ramp with his own people: He’d be able to blame the West for forcing him to give away territory, which would allow him to retain his leadership position.
But that would be “our” definition of winning, which President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have specifically forbidden. So, we’re now in the Catch-22 of saying that we’ll support Zelenskyy’s untenable “win everything” war and that we will also only admit Zelenskyy to NATO once the war has ended – creating an incentive for both Zelenskyy and Putin to continue the war. This is unnecessary. And it’s happening due to the cowardice of Biden and other Western leaders, who want to look like heroes while simultaneously putting Zelenskyy and the West in an unwinnable quagmire of a situation.
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.”
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As long as geriatric Joebomma Commander Liar and Thief is in office the war will continue just so he can get kickbacks from all of our tax dollars he’s sending over there
Feeding billions of dollars into that military industrial complex…the REAL reason for continuing this war.
Are we replacing the weapons given to Ukraine to keep our military stocked: we still haven’t replaced the oil taken by this pseudo President from our strategic oil supply!
Depleting all of our military in every way possible-drag queens as army recruiters, Rachel Levine(He-She in charge). Judge says military personnel can’t be forced to take the phony jab-yet still forcing them to take the killer jab. 85 billion in military hardware to the Taliban. And we’re supposed to trust Obama/Biden?
We need to STOP sending $$$$$$ and arms to Ukraine.
The Deep State is “all in” with promoting this war. Ukraine is about as corrupt as the Democrats and RINO’s pushing us ever closer to WW III supporting their favorite puppet state as a center of international money laundering and bio-weapons development.
When its all over and Ukraine is completely devastated, the Deep State is hankering to get billions of more dollars rebuilding whatever is left of the country after Russia takes over the eastern portion.
It is the Deep State that is the root cause of this war and if Russia doesn’t win sooner they will use the war to try cancel the 2024 elections being by that time we we’ll be perilously close to the nuclear exchange. They will risk anything to stay in power and tighten their grip on us even to the point of self-destruction. That’s how much they fear President Trump.
What else would you expect from President Malarkey?
Ben Shapiro has “nailed it!”
The USA should not be involved with one of the most corrupt countries in the world!
But for the “paid off” Americas….we would not be their supporters at all!
My first thoughts of Zelenski is “what nerve and how dare you coming to Washington dressed like a heathen” to beg for money, artillary and whatever else he can finiggle from the weakest president in the history of mankind, knowing all he has to say is pretty please. Biden is brainless! Our military is in horrible shape, artillary is in short supply, the nation is suffering from Bidenomics greatly, gas reserves are down, and our taxes are being used hand over fist like monopoly monetary in every piece of crap that comes begging! We, for instance, who are seniors live in poverty, lack of medical care and prescriptions and have been called too expensive to take care of, and we are suppose to be happy with a 2.6% cost of living raise. I am sorry parts of the world are at war but we have enough problems to take care of right here. I trust Zelensky about as much as much as I trust Putin, Biden, and a bed of rattlesnakes! Keep our money right here where it is needed and if one took an oath to uphold this country and the United States Constitution one should honor their oath or be put out to pasture ASAP!! I love my country, America is beautiful but we are losing respect and power and that should never ever ever happen! Washington, get to the nation’s business or step down! We don’t need or want you!!
Tisk. tisk, tisk. Grandpa Joe, the globalists and your party socialist/Marxist’s don’t like you using the word: democracy. I doubt most of the J6 folks would agree with the term: democracy. You need to come up with a more politically correct term to hide your lies and corruption. I wonder how much you and your corrupt band of fellow politicians are making on the Ukrainian war effort?
What can you expect from a pseudo President that stated at the very beginning of his proxy war: ‘This is going to get worse’. Never mentioned what this Govt was doing to curb the attacks, never a word of compasion for the suffering of the people. Typlica cold blooded Socialist.He is not senile, he is malicious to the core.
Nothing will make sense until America uproots the communist Democratic Party out of our nations business. They have always been trouble and now they aren’t even trying to hide it.. The Democratic Party is cancer to our country.
Is it coincidence that the country that gave Hunter millions (with 10% to the “Big Guy”) is the one getting (75+) billions from us now? Talk about a profitable investment.
It just seems to me that every World conflict we become involved in is NEVER what politicians say it is.
Always something hidden,unsaid or corrupt involved whenever both parties sign on and question little. Once the taxpayers checkbook is open ,opportunity to lie,cheat and steal steps up. Maybe joebama should have given away the 9 billion in military supplies he left in Afghanistan to Ukraine instead of Our enemies?????
Useless, failed marxist democrat politicians and many Republicans focused on themselves not America. Truly a sad state for Citizens and their futures.
I still expect the war to go nuclear. Probably when Ukraine is able to launch its much delayed offensive that gets through Russian lines and makes a drive to Crimea. That is when the nukes will fly. And that little rat Zelensky will demand that we give him nukes, and if he doesn’t get them he will unleash bioweapons onto the Russians and launch a new pandemic – this time for real.
Ben- Mr. Shapiro: Cowardice of the west and wanting to look like heroes or just a continuation of the military industrial complex and the policies which put us in Iraq, Afgan, and now Ukraine. Must keep moving like a shell & pea game to fool some of the people all of the time. . Hmmmm?
hello
… how come Volodymyr Zelenskyy always dresses like a 8th grader?
Helping Ukraine is bad because:
1) The Ukraine Government is corrupt.
2) The American taxpayer’s money could be better spent at home.
3) The Military/Industrial complex is profiting off the war.
4) Biden and friends are becoming rich on kickbacks.
5) We are pushing Putin to employ nuclear weapons.
6) etc, etc, etc.
Helping Ukraine is good because:
1) The Russian economy is being degraded.
I will go out on a limb here and say that all of the bad things about engaging in a proxy war with the Russian Federation are tolerable because the Russian economy is suffering as bad, or worse than it did after the collapse of the old U.S.S.R.
Russia is not our friend and it would harm American interests around the world given the chance. The Great Russian Bear is not all that great. Russia’s entire economy including its oil and gas reserves are eclipsed by the G.D.P. of the State of Texas. The State of California’s G.D.P. is greater still.
The war is now limited to the use of conventional weapons. Russia is faring badly in fighting with the Ukraine Army because of two things, 1) the Ukrainian will to fight for independence from Russia, and 2) the enormous amount of war supplies from the NATO countries. If the NATO countries continue to support Ukraine Russia is doomed. So far, all of the NATO countries leaders vow to continue to help Ukraine.
Item number 5 is sobering, i.e. Russia resorting to the use of nuclear weapons. Question: Why didn’t the U.S.S.R. lash out with nuclear devices when it was collapsing 1n 1990? Answer: The Russians were not stupid. They had just enough intelligence to understand that any use of nuclear bombs would result in nuclear retaliation. The Russians are still smart enough to understand that even if they did use small tactical nuclear weapons they would not gain an advantage. Small tactical nuclear weapons would immediately be used against them. The same holds true in considering the use of major city busting I.C.B.M.s.
The Mutual Assured Destruction concept, (M.A.D.), is alive and well residing in the minds of all military leaders. No general wants to condemn his family to experiencing 10,500 degree heat at ground zero. The M.A.D. concept has not disappeared in the nations that have these weapons from Perdition.
By continuing to support Ukraine with conventional military supplies, Russia will face a no-win situation. As it degrades, it will take longer and longer just to regain the economy it enjoyed in 2021. Estimates are that it will take at least tens years to recover even if all of the sanctions are lifted right now.
A successful proxy war is the best kind of contest with an opposition. The Ukraine soldiers are kicking the butts of the Russian soldiers, albeit suffering major loses of Ukraine lives. What are the American people suffering? The billions of dollars in military equipment being sent to Ukraine amounts to a rounding off of the total G.D.P. of the United States. While our cost of living will increase as a result of this effort, we are not losing the lives of American soldiers. Proxy wars are good. Oh, and I didn’t even detail the benefits for the American families that derive their income from working in the defense industry. You know, the tens of thousands of workers that need the money for food, shelter and clothing. Did I mention that proxy wars are good?
The Ukrainians have learned that appeasing Russia (which is EXACTLY what giving them the Donbas etc would do, as giving them Crimea in 2014 did) just enables Russia and Putin to gear up for the next land grab of Ukrainian territory in 5 or 10 or 20 years. Wake up, Shapiro.