r/neoliberal • u/RabidGuillotine PROSUR • Oct 14 '24

The Impending Betrayal of Ukraine Opinion article (non-US)

https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/impending-betrayal-ukraine

405 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

161

u/ambassador_softboi Gay Pride Oct 14 '24

I suspect there’s a chance that the real strategy is U.S. policymakers want Ukraine to spend another decade fighting Russia to bleed them out slowly.

As opposed to giving Ukraine what it needs to win right now.

When some U.S. strategists talk about turning Ukraine into Russia’s Afghanistan or Vietnam I suspect they mean that literally. Including a 20 year time frame.

185

u/lietuvis10LTU Why do you hate the global oppressed? Oct 14 '24

I don't think there is any strategy. The policy makers are just too russophilic or are nativist soccons. Or they think "this will all blow over" and want to have an easy "reset" with Russia, just like after 2008.

83

u/socialistrob Janet Yellen Oct 15 '24

Agreed. If the strategy was to weaken Russia itself the goal would be to give Ukraine even more weapons and remove the limitations on striking. A quick defeat of Russia would show the future Russian leaders that they cannot possibly hope to compete with the west.

10

u/mellofello808 Oct 15 '24

The inconvenient truth is that the West cannot ever allow Ukraine to win against Russia.

Not because of the nuclear weapons, but because a messy destabilized Russia would be even more dangerous to our interests.

22

u/goldenCapitalist NATO Oct 15 '24

I don't really believe that anymore. Russia is strong enough and interested in destabilizing Western democracy through hybrid warfare and active disinformation measures, while simultaneously supporting anti-democratic revolutionaries and coups across the globe, while continuing to align themselves with Iran, PRC, and NK, ostensibly as our direct enemies.

And we tolerate Russian-backed covert ops and assassinations on our territory.

The rules-based democratic international order is literally being attacked from all sides by Russia and its supporters, and we're supposed to believe that "a destabilized Russia would be even more dangerous to our interests"? That's a tall fucking order, even if we ignore their active genocidal conquest of Ukraine.

4

u/mellofello808 Oct 15 '24 edited Oct 15 '24

If Russia collapsed, and there was a power struggle now we have random militias with nuclear bombs to deal with.

It isn't likely that they will just pack up from Ukraine, and adopt a western friendly position. We are actively at war, and western weapons are blowing up Russians on a daily basis.

Hardliners would fill the vacuum, and it would be nearly impossible to use leverage, or do diplomacy with them.

Putin's regime is a threat obviously, but it is one central entity to deal with. The Arab spring reminded us what happens when chaos reigns.