The new data suggests that U.S. government policy toward the Ukraine war is increasingly out of step with public opinion on the eve of the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
John Mearsheimer: The Ukraine War Today
An interview with the Munk Debates Podcast on the present situation in Ukraine.
Ed Lozansky: Indispensable Nation or One Obsessed with Hegemony?
Let us sober up and admit that although the United States is exceptional, this is true for any other country on this planet with all its good or bad features.
Jeffrey Sachs: The Biden-Schumer Plan to Kill More Ukrainians
Andrew Cockburn: Admiral Fabuloso Thumps His Tub
From Ukraine to Syria, “Stav” is in the front lines, figuratively speaking, urging escalation against Russia. The Ukrainians should have “lethal aid” from the U.S., he announced in 2015, and when asked if that might not lead the Russians to escalate in turn, he conceded blithely, “when you release ordnance, everything changes.”
MK Bhadrakumar: Putin signals interest in Ukraine talks
Without doubt, the war in Ukraine was the leitmotif of the interview. When asked about the prospect for peace, Putin suggested, “If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons.” Putin further responded, “It will be over within a few weeks. That’s it.”
The tantalisingly easy solution is anchored on Putin’s belief, which he held consistently since the conflict began in February 2022, that this is at the core a civil war and a fratricidal strife that divided families, relatives and friends, which might not have happened without the maleficent, intrusive behaviour by Western powers.
Recent Remarks by Senior US Officials on the War in Ukraine
Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in Kiev, Jan. 31 2024:
“I leave Kyiv tonight more encouraged about the unity and the result, about 2024 and its absolute strategic importance for Ukraine,” Nuland said.
“I also leave more confident that, as Ukraine strengthens its defenses, Mr. Putin is going to get some nice surprises on the battlefield and that Ukraine will make some very strong success,” she added.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien, Jan. 25, 2024:
“We’re about a month away from acknowledging the second year of Russia’s further invasion, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And here are sort of basic starting points. Ukrainians continue to choose democracy, equal justice and a European future, just as they have twice on the Maidan and as they do every day now on the frontlines fighting against Russia’s aggression. Russia will want to continue its war until it, frankly, sees the results of our election in November. So, we’re looking at a long 2024. And we’re talking now in the depths of winter. And winter is always dark and hard without any Game of Thrones illusion. We believe Ukraine will be stronger by the end of 2024 and in a better position to determine its – its future. And that future, as President Biden said, is that we’re going to help Ukraine win. So that’s the goal of the strategy.”
“So Russia has now made a decision to pivot away from part of the wealthy world into something else. We’re going to have to think about how we want to deal with that Russia however the next year or two goes. This revanchist Russia is something that that the U.S. would need to develop a policy for.”
VIDEO: ACURA’s Nicolai N. Petro and Pascal Lottaz on the Coming Ukrainian Awakening
Nicolai N. Petro, author of “The Tragedy of Ukraine” explains how the latest development on the battle field combined with the history of Ukrainian nationalism will lead to a process in which even the “Banderites” will want to strike a peace deal with Russia to preserve what is left of motherland—even against the will of the western neocons who have been wreaking havoc on Ukraine for the sole purpose of fighting a proxy-war with Russia.
The great Ukrainian awakening is only a matter of time, and Russia knows it. The only question is how many more Ukrainian soldiers the nationalists are still willing to throw into their early graves before doing what should have been done in April 2022: A neutrality agreement and a true process of reconciliation. This tragedy must end and will end because at the end of the day, the neocons are willing to “fight to the last Ukrainian” but they have made it utterly clear that sacrificing their own is not on the menu.
ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: The “Disinformation” Complex and US Foreign Policy
During Mr. Obama’s second term in office (2013-2017), it had become clear that the terms of the public policy debate were undergoing a radical and worrying transformation. In the space of a very short time, certain ideas and policy proposals were being ruled as out of bounds not on the grounds that they were unwise, impractical, or inefficient, but on the grounds that they were products of “disinformation” campaigns on the part of foreign intelligence agencies.
To take one example: Those few who publicly expressed reservations with regard to Mr. Obama’s policy toward Russia and Ukraine found themselves branded not as merely unwise or wrongheaded but as nefarious tools of a foreign disinformation campaign. [Read more…] about ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: The “Disinformation” Complex and US Foreign Policy
ACURA ZoomCast: Putin, Tucker and the Clash of Civilizations with Paul Grenier and Matthew Dal Santo
Today we are joined by the co-founders of the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy, Paul Grenier and Matthew Dal Santo, both longtime observers and experts on Russia, to discuss the Carlson/Putin interview as well as their new Substack project, Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue.
ACURA’s Anatol Lieven: Zaluzhny firing not even a band-aid as Ukraine strategy bleeds out
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s dismissal of the Ukrainian army chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, is a colossal political gamble for Zelensky and seems to indicate an increasing mood of desperation in Kyiv. The background to this move lies in the failure of last year’s Ukrainian offensive, and the attempts both to shift blame and to draw up a new strategy that could promise Ukraine future victory.
Norman Solomon: Full Speed Ahead on the Global Titanic
Yes, the Doomsday Clock keeps ticking — it’s now at 90 seconds to midnight, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — but the ultimate time bomb never gets the attention that it deserves. Even as the possibility of nuclear annihilation looms, this century’s many warning signs retain the status of Cassandras.
VIDEO: John Mearsheimer’s Reaction to Hillary Clinton’s Latest Accusation…
In an interview on MSNBC, Clinton accused Tucker Carlson of being a “useful idiot” for interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mearsheimer responds in the accompanying clip.
ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: Letter from ThinkTankLand
The odious ritual whereby representatives of foreign governments travel to Washington to tell us our business has become so routine it hardly even registers. And, down the years, hosting such rituals has become a (if not the) primary function of Washington’s think tanks which, also to no one’s surprise, draws millions and millions in funding from these very same governments.
Such was the case at mid-week when the Foreign Minister of Norway, Espen Barth Eide, appeared on a dais at the Brookings Institution. Since Brookings was, some years back, discovered to be snout-deep in the trough of foreign money, the Institution’s Vice President, Susanne Maloney (who, to be fair, is one of the more sensible, i.e. not certifiably insane, Middle East ‘experts’ in town) was at pains to stress that while Brookings does accept funding from the government of Norway, that will in no way impede upon the integrity of the ritual. [Read more…] about ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: Letter from ThinkTankLand
Peter Hitchens: Are We The Baddies?
Are we the baddies? What if the Ukraine war is just as stupid and wrong as the Iraq war, but the state propaganda has been more successful and hardly anybody has realised… yet?
Many people to this day still think the damaging and morally dubious Western attacks on Serbia and Libya were justified. Many still think the gory attempt to destroy Syria was a good thing. It took ages for opinion to swing on the Vietnam war, back in the 1960s. And, as one who opposed the Iraq war, I remember only too well just how many (who now think they were against it all the time) were fooled into backing Sir Anthony Blair and George W. Bush.
Alexander Hill: Diplomacy is the Art of the Compromise
In recent weeks there have been signs in the Western press that at least some Western politicians might be thinking that it is time to nudge Ukraine towards the idea of peace negotiations with Russia. Indeed, there have even been hints that Russia might be extending out feelers about a possible peace along the lines discussed here in a piece first drafted at the end of December 2023. In the context of a war in which a decisive outcome for either side currently looks unlikely, we would be well served to mull over words attributed first to Benjamin Franklin in a letter of 1783 that ‘There was never a good war, or a bad peace’.
ACURA ZoomCast: Dr. Pietro Shakarian on Life and Politics in Russia
Today we are joined by Dr. Pietro Shakarian, a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union and a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Historical Research at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia.
ACURA’s Jack Matlock: The Christmas Gift that Keeps Giving
On December 24, 1989, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Aboimov informed me on behalf of the Soviet government, ‘We have given the Brezhnev Doctrine to you with our compliments. Consider it a Christmas gift.”
Now, some thirty-four years later, I should explain what the Brezhnev Doctrine was, the circumstances under which the gift was conveyed, and why I believe that it was a gift that has infused US foreign policy to this very day.
Peter Beinart: Why do America’s liberal hawks attack Russia while giving Israel a free pass?
Liberal hawks like Michael McFaul, Max Boot and Anne Applebaum are quick to denounce Russian aggression but ignore Israeli crimes.
ACURA ZoomCast: Richard Sakwa on The Lost Peace
Professor Richard Sakwa joins ACURA’s David Speedie and James W. Carden for a conversation about his new book The Lost Peace: How The West Failed to Prevent a Second Cold War.