Re:Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
by dragonwriter on Saturday March 01, 2025 @05:08PM
(#43224235)
> the reality is that some sort of ceasefire around the current borders is going to be the outcome that ends this war.
No, it won't. With sufficient outside political pressure on Ukraine, it might happen, but (like many ceasefires) it would only be a brief pause, not an end to the war.
> We can work on forcing Russia to withdraw via economic and other pressure after the hot war is over.
Sanctions almost never work without someone actually fighting on the ground. If they are not tipping the balance of an active internal or external conflict, they can be endured basically indefinitely.
(Not that Trump seems inclined to either try to force Putin to withdraw or to maintain sanctions, in any case.)
> Just like we broke up the Soviet Union.
We didn't break up the Soviet Union, the republics of the Soviet Union broke it up, largely because of a crisis of legitimacy resulting from a hardline coup against a mildly reformist leadership. The main immediate US contribution, though, was bogging the USSR down in the long war it fought in Afghanistan by aiding the forces opposing the USSR there, the outgrowth of which was both the disatisfaction that provoked the reform efforts and the strong negative reaction to the subsequent hardline coup, not sanctions imposed without an ongoing armed conflict.
No, it won't. With sufficient outside political pressure on Ukraine, it might happen, but (like many ceasefires) it would only be a brief pause, not an end to the war.
> We can work on forcing Russia to withdraw via economic and other pressure after the hot war is over.
Sanctions almost never work without someone actually fighting on the ground. If they are not tipping the balance of an active internal or external conflict, they can be endured basically indefinitely.
(Not that Trump seems inclined to either try to force Putin to withdraw or to maintain sanctions, in any case.)
> Just like we broke up the Soviet Union.
We didn't break up the Soviet Union, the republics of the Soviet Union broke it up, largely because of a crisis of legitimacy resulting from a hardline coup against a mildly reformist leadership. The main immediate US contribution, though, was bogging the USSR down in the long war it fought in Afghanistan by aiding the forces opposing the USSR there, the outgrowth of which was both the disatisfaction that provoked the reform efforts and the strong negative reaction to the subsequent hardline coup, not sanctions imposed without an ongoing armed conflict.