by George Beebe at Responsible Statecraft
It is time for the Biden administration to level with the American people about the Ukraine war.
For more than a year, the White House has painted for the public a rosy picture of battlefield and strategic success. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia,” President Biden proclaimed during his visit to Kyiv in February. “We believe that we can win — they [the Ukrainians] can win if they have the right equipment, the right support,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken has repeatedly insisted that the war will be a “strategic defeat” for Russia that will leave it weakened and incapable of future aggression. Even the administration’s most sober-minded observer of the war, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley, has asserted that Ukraine has the leadership and morale to beat Russia.
Driven by these optimistic pronouncements, Biden officials have insisted that justice must prevail in the war. They say that Putin and other Russian officials must be tried for war crimes. They insist that, as the victim of unprovoked Russian aggression, Ukraine alone has the right to determine whether to seek a settlement or concede territory.
The bottom line from White House…
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