Ukraine's failed offensive. Now is the time for talks to end this proxy war.
Spending this glorious week with family and old friends on Block Island, I almost dread turning on my laptop to catch up with the latest news.
And, so I don’t very often.
I only scored six of eleven on the New York Times weekly news quiz which, as it points out, is well below my average.
That reflects how much I have been in a cocoon.
The television hasn’t been turned on once, and not just because we have no clue how the three different remote controls work. Nobody has even tried to figure it out.
Instead our thoughts are concentrated on the tile word game, Banarama and a Diego Rivera jig saw puzzle.
It is hard to imagine that thousands of miles away a proxy war is going on where over 500,000 men, women and children on both sides have been killed or wounded in the last year and a half.
The predicted Ukrainian offensive has collapsed and the U.S., NATO and Ukraine officials have descended into name calling and blame gaming.
Even last week, before I turned off the TV, Zelensky and U.S. officials were pointing fingers at each other as to who was to blame for the failed offensive that was supposed to recapture all the lost eastern territories.
The failed offensive and the probability now of a long never-ending stalemate can only bring a further decline in American support for the war.
Polls taken even before we left home show more than half those asked have little appetite for open-ended military and financial support for Ukraine, down from 60% support only a month earlier.
There should be grave concern that a continuation of this war will have the disastrous effect on the election, undermining the already unpopular Joe Biden and aiding Trump or some Republican who might replace him.
Although for the moment, he still seems to be the one.
Trump’s pledge to end the war in 24 hours may find very receptive ears among the voters even as it comes from a four time criminally indicted candidate.
Considering all this, now seems the time for talks to end the war.
It should be obvious now that there will be no final military victory except at an unacceptable cost.
I thought that was true even before the 500,000 dead and wounded.