Just because Democrats are suddenly and oddly determined to defeat Russia despite their late-Cold War "moral equivalence" nonsense doesn't make me oppose defeating Russia. Instead I say to the Democrats,
"Welcome to the party, pal." But how converted are they?
Ukraine continues to fight off the Russian offensives, inflicting heavy casualties on the Russian ground forces and in general humiliating Putin for failing to defeat Ukraine after a year of fighting--let alone crushing Ukraine cheaply in days.
Although Putin still works on outlasting the West to defeat Ukraine, not much is going on beyond fighting and dying along a generally static front. This author doesn't see things changing until May, presumably when the mud dries.
I want to defeat the Russians. And the fact that Democrats are oddly enthusiastic about defeating Russia is not going to get me to wonder if maybe I should worry about the Russians losing or think maybe they're not that bad. Nor am I going to suddenly believe that Ukraine isn't pure enough to be worthy of our help.
Just like Churchill defended aiding the Russians after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941, if Putin invaded Hell I'd be willing to put in a good word for the Devil in Congress. The Ukrainians aren't perfect. But they want to join the West. And they are way better than Russians are.
Especially better than accepting Russians farther west. No buffer will ease Russian paranoia.
Russia is our self-described enemy. That's on them. Not us. I'm not suddenly going to go along with Obama's dismissal of Russia as a foe and justify watching Ukraine burn and go down.
Nor am I going to disguise opposition to defeating Russia by adopting the leftist strategy of always opposing the current "flawed" war (Ukraine) to support a hypothetical future perfect war (Taiwan).
The (partial) partisan divisions over helping Ukraine are interesting.
Democrats mostly seem to back Ukraine. And a good portion of Republicans oppose helping Ukraine too much. With "too much" ill defined and a strange faith in diplomacy with Putin.
I support helping Ukraine win. Am I backing Biden? I guess, if you turn down the lights and squint.
I think it is really the other way around. I'll say again that I think Biden is accidentally supporting Ukraine. I think Biden was told Ukraine would lose fast. I think the early war shipments of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons were designed for a post-invasion Ukrainian insurgency. The arms would be a relatively cheap way for Biden to show resolve after needlessly losing Afghanistan.
But Ukraine and Russia didn't cooperate with that political
strategy. Russia effed up and Ukraine fought. Oops. Biden got trapped
into backing Ukraine. And I worry he's looking for an exit ramp.
I'm willing to get over being portrayed by Democrats as a horrible human for wanting to resist the USSR back then as the price of getting their support for resisting the Russians today.
Heck, I'm willing to overlook the odd fact that Democrats seem to own more Ukrainian than American flags.
So to Democrats, welcome to the party, pal. Don't go wobbly on me this time if Russia drags the war out.
UPDATE: Yet another telegraphed counteroffensive called off? Or appearing far when near?
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russia cannot start until Western allies send more military support.
Hard to say. I lean to the latter at this point.
UPDATE: Is Zelensky's open determination to defend Bakhmut, which he says losing would discourage his people and encourage Russia, a ploy to feign a retreat that gets Russia to pursue--making the advancing Russian army vulnerable to a counter-attack that transitions to the counteroffensive?
UPDATE (Thursday): Hmmm:
America’s top general said the city of Bakhmut has become a "slaughter-fest for the Russians" and that Vladimir Putin’s forces are getting "hammered" by Ukraine.
Zelensky already said Ukraine can't afford to lose the city. Could we do anything else besides Ukraine renaming Bakhmut to "Zelenskygrad" to get Putin to keep attacking until Ukraine's counteroffensive?
NOTE: ISW coverage of the war continues here.
