The press talks about the conflict in Ukraine as being in its second year and tentatively reports that Ukraine ground forces appear to have attacked into Russian territory. The reality is that the killing has been going on since well before 2014 when the Obama/Biden Administration acquiesced to the Russian takeover of Crimea. I suggest that while we all bemoan the situation, none of us actually think about it and when we do discuss it, we color our discussion with a considerable amount of ignorant, wishful thinking. I am not a student of things Ukrainian, but it is my understanding that there are a significant number of people living in the separatist region that consider themselves closer to Moscow than Kiev.
I argue that the political orientation of Donetsk does not significantly impact American interests except as it threatens peace in Europe and it was short-sighted to have made the argument between Kiev and Moscow into another iteration of the Cold War that we had pretty well ended decades ago, but were too ignorant to understand the follow-on need to bring Moscow into the family of nations. Whatever the truth of all of that, it is unfortunately behind us and we are faced with the reality of an expanding hot war in Europe that is roiling the world economy and destroying far too much of Ukraine's economic infrastructure. I suggest that we should think about this as we consider our own political future here in this country. At the present time you and I are asking our politicians the wrong question. We ask how they would support Kiev, when the question that we should ask is how they would end the fighting and how they would improve the relationship between Moscow and Washington without further weakening our leadership role in the Family of Nations.
PS: Actual war in Europe, The Middle East, and potential war in the Far East contributes mightily to inflation here in this country and that should factor into our internal discussion to a much greater extent than it does now.
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