The only minor difference is that a caesarist president in the supposed mold of Washington, Lincoln, or FDR brings about the nation-transforming policy revolution in a flurry of executive orders in the first 100 days of the administration. The wingnut theory comes in a presidential as well as a congressional version. Third, your triumphant one-wing party defeats the other party, takes over the entire government, and imposes its comprehensive platform on America in a burst of supermajority legislation. Second, your wing of the party takes over the party as a whole. On left and right, the wingnut theory holds that making public policy is a three-step process: First, you and your ideological allies take over a wing of one of America’s two major parties and draft a comprehensive platform with positions on all issues, foreign and domestic. The Washington establishment rises every morning seemingly determined to violate that injunction.īut Anne Applebaum argues that it would be unwise to negotiate in a manner that gives Vladamir Putin an “off-ramp” rather than a beatdown: Morgenthau wrote, in his rules for effective diplomacy, that you should never let a weak ally make your decisions for you. In that effort there are lots of paths to a real war between the United States and Russia. If Ukraine does go on the offensive, eyeing its lost territories, it can only do so with stout American assistance. Russia appears on the cusp of encircling important pockets of Ukrainian forces in the East-a major defeat for Ukraine that would lead to recriminations-but Ukraine also promises to raise a million-man army paid for by the USA, and ready for offensives in the summer. How far America’s prodigious aid for Ukraine, at $54 billion and counting, will go in enabling these goals is unclear. Ukraine’s leaders have demanded that Russia abandon both Crimea and the Donbass, then submit to reparations and a war crimes trial for Vladimir Putin. “is closer to war with Russia than at any time in the past three decades, and more so than most times during the Cold War.” He writes of the coming months: The effect, intended or not, is to foreclose any recourse to peace negotiations.ĭavid C. The charge is so serious that, once leveled, it discourages restraint after all, a leader who commits one atrocity is no less a war criminal than one who commits a thousand. Putin be tried for war crimes is an act of consummate irresponsibility. Putin “cannot remain in power.” In April, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin explained that the United States seeks to “see Russia weakened” … Biden invoked God before insisting that Mr. The United States has shown itself not just liable to escalate but also inclined to. That naturally may create among American policy makers a sense of moral and political obligation-to stay the course, to escalate the conflict, to match any excess. Thousands of Ukrainians have died who likely would not have if the United States had stood aside. We have given Ukrainians cause to believe they can prevail in a war of escalation. Our role in this is not passive or incidental. Putin’s claim that America’s arming of Ukraine is the reason the war happened in the first place, it is certainly the reason the war has taken the kinetic, explosive, deadly form it has. Is the West sleepwalking toward a hot war with Russia? Christopher Caldwell thinks so, and makes the case that if Europe finds itself at war, then America will bear part of the blame:Įven if we don’t accept Mr. The war in Ukraine and its potential to escalate is top of mind for me this week as President Joe Biden declares that he will send advanced rocket systems to the country and the European Union and the United Kingdom collaborate to shut Russian oil shipments out of key insurance markets. What responsibility, if any, do the United States or individual Americans have to help innocents around the world afflicted in ways like these? Send your answers to of Note And with wheat production falling due to war and weather, a catastrophic hunger crisis in poor countries is very likely. China also has designs on subjugating the people of Hong Kong and potentially Taiwan. So is the oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Chinese concentration camps. Russia’s murderous invasion of Ukraine is ongoing. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf.
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