The Tone of Our Discourse About the Russia-UkraineWar Says That Diplomacy is a Dirty Word
Shamed by party leaders, progressive Democrats in Congress withdrew their letter requesting direct US-Russia negotiations
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I was very disappointed to learn that Pramila Jayapal and her friends in Congress had withdrawn their letter to President Joe Biden. In that letter, they strongly urged a path of diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
Their letter had one point that really hit home for me: by sending weapons to Ukraine the United States created a responsibility for itself to help negotiate a settlement.
I’m sad to see that the geriatric leadership of the United States could not get on the peace train. I know they came from a different time and place than the next generation of leaders that will someday replace them. I want our 60, 70, and 80-year-old leaders to remember that we’re not living in the days of Kennedy, or the Second World War anymore. Those days are gone.
Nostalgia and war really don’t belong in the same sentence.
I don’t normally agree with Rich Lowry. He writes for The Hill, Politico, and (especially) The National Review. But, hoo-boy, I sure did agree with him on October 26th. He issued a very rational and sobering review of the aforementioned letter, retraction thereof, and the potential culpability of America in its support of Ukraine. I think I found the nugget of his article:
The letter to President Joe Biden from 30 House progressives led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, engendered the same intensely negative reaction as public musings about diplomatic deals by Elon Musk and Henry Kissinger. You don’t have to endorse any of the specific proposals talked about by these very different people to be disturbed by the campus-like fervor with which they have been deemed unsayable and unthinkable.
I find the “campus-like fervor” disturbing, too. I say, “let’s negotiate a peace deal before it goes nuclear”, and the response is, “The war will end when Putin pulls his troops out of Ukraine”.
Who will make him pull out? Ukraine? They don’t have the power. Europe? They’re…
