North Korean troops in Ukraine,

The Hill has an interesting article highlighting the incongruity of Putin using godless North Korean troops in Ukraine, allegedly to preserve Russian cultural and religious values.  Most Americans scoff at the cultural rationalization for Putin’s actions, but I do not.  I am not naive enough to believe that it is the reason for his invasion of Ukraine, but I do believe that it is an important part of his explanation of that action within Russia.  In my view, Putin is attempting to stop the further deterioration of the Soviet model of domestic Russian governance and Russian foreign relations, and he is using Russian culture as a corner stone of his domestic political discussion within Russia.

Were I influential enough, I would be arguing that we should cold-bloodedly accept the cultural argument as being the root of the present war, and force Kiev and Moscow to negotiate an end to the fighting.  My objective would be to permit people living in Ukraine to choose between Kiev and Moscow.  My current understanding is that the Donbas Region of Ukraine is populated by a significant number of people who look toward Moscow more than toward Kiev for their cultural identity.  In return for that concession to Putin, I would hold out for Russian financial participation in the rebuilding of all of Ukraine, recognizing that Moscow, not only does not intend to do that, but even if they did, they would not have the resources to do very much more than repair the part of Ukraine that they gain control of in the peace negotiations.

This war was a serious mistake right from the very beginning and it is not going to magically be made anything else in the negotiations that end it.  I believe that Trump basically understands the unfortunate situation well enough to attempt some sort of resolution along these lines, but I do not see any evidence that he will go beyond ending the war to any of the things that need to be done to avoid future manifestations of the exact same stupidity on the part of Russian and American leaders.  We humans must find a way to live together peacefully, not because it is the right thing to do, but because we will destroy ourselves unless we do.   Were I influential enough, I would be arguing for a negotiation that brought Moscow into the family of nations.  Following that, I would invite Beijing, Pyongyang, and Teheran to join in as well - in that order.  I well understand that the problem grows ever more complex as we move through this hierarchy of intransigence, but we must do it successfully to avoid a massive nuclear exchange down the line somewhere.  Russian and Chinese communism is going to be difficult enough, but the apocalyptic leadership within Radical Islam may well be impossible.  North Korea should become manageable once we move away from the Kim Family's control of that benighted country.