You win a war by crushing your enemy and then being generous to get them to realign with you. You can't take a shortcut by skipping the "crushing" part.
One faction in the White House wants to restrict Ukraine's ability to attack Russian territory:
Officials in certain corners of the administration have told the Ukrainians that the U.S. will eventually want to reset relations with Moscow and lifting the restrictions could upend those efforts.
Ah, Reset 2.0! The first was great!
The idea that we can gain Russian gratitude by inflicting only a small defeat on Russia is wrong. If Russia fails to conquer Ukraine they'll blame America regardless of how good a ceasefire deal we get for Russia.
And the conceit of thinking we can finely calibrate the outcome of a war as if it is some precision machinery with known parameters of performance is insanely dangerous. If you aren't trying to win as quickly as possible, you are letting the enemy try to win, no matter how long it takes them.
Further, I think the foundation of this type of thinking is the mistaken notion that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany. That's nonsense. We finally created a democratic and allied Germany by bombing their cities, starving their people with blockade, and marching into the heart of Germany after destroying their armies.
The urge to reset is plausible given that I do question Biden's commitment to defeating Russia.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.NOTE: You may also read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved.
