The war in Ukraine is drawing close to a year long…..a peaceful conclusion is further away than it was just last month….but many Americans, me included, think that diplomacy should be the only aid in this conflict…..

Nearly 60 percent of Americans would support the United States engaging in diplomatic efforts “as soon as possible” to end the war in Ukraine, even if that means Ukraine having to make concessions to Russia, according to a new poll. 

The survey, conducted by Data for Progress on behalf of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, also found that a plurality (49 percent) said the Biden administration and Congress have not done enough diplomatically to help end the war (37 percent said they had). 

The poll’s release comes after Vladimir Putin doubled down on Russia’s war in Ukraine by mobilizing reserves and issuing threats to use nuclear weapons after recent gains by the Ukrainian military near the country’s eastern border with Russia. 

Moscow has also recently orchestrated referendums in some Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine on whether citizens there want to secede and become part of the Russian Federation, leading experts to believe that regardless of the outcome, Putin plans to illegally annex parts of Ukraine. 

Poll: Americans support quick diplomatic end to war in Ukraine

There are some that are working to a dip0lomatic end…..like retired Adm Mullen…..

Retired Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday that the US should work quickly to bring Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

Mullen, who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, told ABC that President Biden should “back off” his talk of nuclear armageddon and work to end the war.

“President Biden’s language — we’re about at the top of the language scale, if you will. And I think we need to back off that a little bit and do everything we possibly can to try to get to the table to resolve this thing,” Mullen said.

He said that it was up to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other diplomats to figure out how to bring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to the table for negotiations.

“As is typical in any war, it’s gotta end and usually there are negotiations associated with that. The sooner the better, as far as I’m concerned,” Mullen added.

When discussing the risk of nuclear war, Mullen said that he has to take Putin seriously since he could use lower-yield tactical nuclear weapons and described the Russian president as a “cornered animal.”

(antiwar.com)

There are a couple things that could end this war…..some are a bit hard and others seem like logical thinking….

Biden offered no answers to his own questions. But one way might be for the western diplomatic community to put pressure on Kyiv to rein in its battlefield advances and to accept some territorial losses to Putin. This pressure could come from withholding the western-supplied arms or through the cutting of the major overseas funding that is currently keeping the whole Ukrainian economy afloat.

The levers are there. But they would be hard sells. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said many times that Ukraine would accept nothing less than a complete Russian withdrawal from its captured territory and many in the west would rail against any military or financial constraints being applied on Kyiv.

Another sop to Putin might be for Nato to say to Moscow that, unequivocally, Ukraine (and Georgia) will never be allowed to join the alliance. But this would have little support within NATO itself – and with countries like Sweden and Finland who also want to join.

Since there is seemingly no off ramp for Putin this could be a very long war that the US must bankroll……does Afghanistan come to mind?

Peace is always elusive….but as they say “where there is a will there is a way”….sadly there is NO will these days….and we all know why this is allowed to continue.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”