Russia-Ukraine, Week 22: Americans want diplomacy

Not just the Goldlocks Three Bears of Hank the Knife Kissinger, the NYT editorial board, and duopoly leftist Noam Chomsky, at all of whom many #BlueAnon / #TeamBlue / #VoteBlueNoMatterWho the grifter is / etc. warmongers scoff.

Not just NATO-barking opposer Pope Francis, whom the above ignore, also cited in that blog post. (I guess Joe Biden is a neoliberal warmonger Cafeteria Catholic.)

More and more of "We the People," now a majority of polled Americans, want diplomacy pushed harder by War Status Quo Joe, says the Quincy Institute.

Here's the biggie:

According to a poll conducted by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and Data for Progress, 57% of likely voters strongly or somewhat support the US pursuing diplomatic negotiations as soon as possible to end the war in Ukraine, even if it requires Ukraine making compromises with Russia. Just 32% of respondents were strongly or somewhat opposed to this.

Note that "even if" at the end.

Period. 

Hank the Knife may have been thinking of this in part when he recommended negotiations. 

As for the Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ wanting to fight Putin to the last Ukrainian and/or the last high-dollar US weapons system, especially those in the triple revolving door between gummint, think tanks and defense contractors? Inflation's going to keep rearing its head, if nothing else? Remember Vietnam? The "guns and butter" applies if inflation's already happening, even if we're not directly fighting.

In fact, the poll addresses that issue, too:

The poll also found 58% of Americans somewhat somewhat or strongly oppose the US providing aid to Ukraine at current levels if there are higher gas prices and a higher cost of goods in the US, while just 33% somewhat or strongly support continuing aid if this occurs.

Duh!

A similar question:

And nearly half of the respondents (47%) said they only support the continuation of US military aid to Ukraine if the US is involved in ongoing diplomacy to end the war, while 41% said they support the continuation of US military aid to Ukraine whether the US is involved in ongoing diplomacy or not.

Are you listening, AOC, Ilhan, and the rest of The Fraud, I mean, The Squad?

Finally, a "push for diplomacy" means direct US action, also per a plurality.

The Biden administration and Congress need to do more diplomatically to help end the war, according to 49% of likely voters, while 37% said they have done enough in this regard, the poll showed.

Are you listening, Warmonger Joe? Team Blue?

Remember: You're almost certainly going to lose the House. Especially if you lose the Senate as well, some yahoo like Gym Jordan is raising Hunter Biden's laptop as an issue.

Here's Quncy's talking points:

"Americans recognize what many in Washington don't: Russia's war in Ukraine is more likely to end at the negotiating table than on the battlefield. And there is a brewing skepticism of Washington's approach to this war, which has been heavy on tough talk and military aid, but light on diplomatic strategy and engagement," said Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute. 

"'As long as it takes' isn't a strategy, it's a recipe for years of disastrous and destructive war — conflict that will likely bring us no closer to the goal of securing a prosperous, independent Ukraine. US leaders need to show their work: explain to the American people how you plan to use your considerable diplomatic leverage to bring this war to an end," Parsi added.

What else is there to say?

Well, there's Chomsky himself, renewing his call for negotiations, before the war becomes more drawn out, and before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asks Biden for weapons to reach Russia one too many times, and Remove Putin Joe caves in. Per Noam, will European NATO countries (looking at you, energy depleted Germany, looking at you, France's Macron, to find Gaullist independence) get the balls to push for negotiations on their own? 

Anatol Lieven, linked by Chomsky, and himself writing at Quincy's Responsible Statecraft, also calls for peace talks, warning that if Biden doesn't move, the sham-annexed areas risk becoming a new Kashmir. Lieven also notes how Putin carefully did not try to incorporate Donetsk and Luhansk after the Maidan, but instead accepted the Minsk (II) Agreements negotiated by France and Germany, but, after eight years of non-action by Ukraine, prodded by the US and UK, he eventually grew tired of negotiations that were going nowhere. Finally, given the Shanghai Cooperative talks in Samarkand, Lieven doubts that Putin would be sticking his neck out without some backup from Xi Jinping, no matter what he said for public consumption there.

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Update 1: Stop misusing "Munich," warmongers. Jonathan Katz has your number. And, Anne Applebaum's.

Update 2: Ross Douthat has a column that's worth a read, setting aside his "pivot to China" push.

Update 3: Speaking of China and Applebaum, she comes off as pathetic in appealing to China against Putin. She also talks about how more than 16,400 Russians have been detained for protesting. Gee, Anne, how many Americans were "detained for protesting" during Vietnam?