US and Them: Why an Immediate Diplomatic Settlement is the Only Coherent Endgame for Ukraine, Russia and the Rest of the World

A Year of Total Escalation

We’re fast approaching the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the course of the year 2022 the US, with its NATO allies in tow, did everything in its power to escalate the conflict. In fact, during 2022 all attempts at facilitating negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were rebuffed and/or actively thwarted by the US.(1)The fact is, this war could have been prevented before it began. It also could have been stopped within the first few months of battle.(2)
Instead, as the year progressed, Washington and NATO chose to employ increasingly threatening rhetoric, demanding regime change and “total victory” over Russia.(3)(4) The US and NATO also implemented what were intended to be increasingly damaging sanctions against Russia throughout 2022. The sanctions actually produced a very different effect than what was intended. The sanctions have largely ended up helping more than hindering Russia and they have hurt Europe tremendously.(5)
These measures were coupled with the allotment of over 100 billion dollars of military aid to Ukraine.(6)

The Biden Administration’s Reckless Decree at the End of 2021

All of this activity followed on the heels of the Biden administration’s bewilderingly reckless assertion near the end of 2021 that Ukraine would soon become a NATO member.(7) Biden announced this despite decades of requests and warnings issued by a host of highly respected Western and Eastern leaders and military experts. These experts were emphatic about the fact that Russia would, without question, view the inclusion of Ukraine into NATO as an existential threat.(8)
Add to this eight years of on-sight military training (2014 – 2022) of the Ukrainian army by NATO, which was preceded by a US backed coup that helped overthrow a problematic though democratically elected Ukrainian government in 2014.(9)
In short, the US has been provoking Russia for almost a decade with no compunctions about the possibility of placing the people of Ukraine in a situation where they could potentially become cannon fodder in yet another US proxy war.

Death Toll of the Current Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The discrepancy between casualty reports coming from Ukraine and reports coming from Russia is quite large. In short, both countries are claiming that they are winning the war. The Western media has generally been presenting a picture of eventual or imminent victory for Ukraine.
However, a recent report by Mossad, Israel’s National Intelligence Agency, an institution that is known for its circumspection, counted 157,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead and 234,000 Ukrainian soldiers wounded and incapable of returning to battle as of January 14, 2023. This, according to Mossad, means “Ukraine has lost 8 times as many soldiers as Russia.”(10)
Interestingly, these figures are very similar to numbers that former US Colonel Douglas McGregor and former UN Special Commissions Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter were reporting in mid-January. (11)
Of course, these and many other legitimate, pedigreed sources that diverge (even slightly) from the Western narrative have been algorithmically filtered out and/or cancelled by the aforementioned powers that be.

By The End of This Month

It is my belief, after sorting through over a hundred reports on this topic, that by the end of February over 200,000 Ukrainians will have died along with another 300,000 wounded in battle. This war is as bloody as any war Europe has seen in 75 years and it’s going to get bloodier as 2023 progresses.(12)
It is also my belief that Ukraine has been losing this war, decisively, since the summer of 2022. The Ukrainian army is way outgunned and outmanned and their situation will only get worse in 2023. In short, Ukraine is being wrecked and its army is being slaughtered.(13a)
It is also my belief that, at this point, the pentagon and the White House are aware of the fact that they hugely miscalculated and they now know that Russia is going to win this war.

The Us and the Them

I’m going to cut right to the chase here and humbly request that you consider becoming open to the possibility that Russia and Ukraine are both ultimately “Them” in the current global power and wealth equation. “Huh?”, you may be thinking…
The “Us” I’m referring to is not the people of Ukraine and it is not the people of the United States either. Nor is this “Us” the people of Europe or the people of Iraq or the people of Australia or the people of Afghanistan or the people of Asia or Africa or India or Palestine or Great Britain, etc. The “Us” is a relatively small contingent of exorbitantly wealthy people, a clique of multibillionaires who are making a killing, literally and monetarily, off of this war. The other 7 and a half Billion of us are all “Them” to them.

Diplomatic Settlement: The Only Coherent Endgame

I request that you consider the possibility that the general picture we’ve been given about what is taking place on the battlefield in Ukraine has been skewed and is, to a large degree, untrue. In actuality Ukraine is being destroyed. The people of Ukraine are being used as cannon fodder by the US in a proxy war that was intended to weaken Russia but has failed. It’s a proxy war that’s been in the works for at least eight years.(13b)
Consider the possibility that unless a cease-fire settlement is reached soon hundreds of thousands more human beings will die unnecessarily this year, in this war.(14)
Lastly, I ask you, humbly, to consider the possibility that there is no coherent endgame to this conflict other than a diplomatic settlement. Think about it – even if the US media were telling the truth and the “rampant imperialist madman” Putin and Russia were in fact being progressively pushed by Ukraine toward total defeat as a consequence of the US and NATO’s eventual “total victory”, where would this leave the rest of us? Would we not then be directly on the road to nuclear annihilation at the hands of a “madman”? Keep in mind, Russia is an undisputed equal if not superior nuclear power to the US.
We are dealing with a level of absurdity that defies categorization, that defies any known form of logic. Alas, here We all are.

Face Saving at the Risk of “Nuclear War”

There will be no twenty-first century global “nuclear war.” This is a fantasy. There will only be total destruction, there will only be total annihilation if this conflict escalates to the point where modern nuclear weapons are implemented.
Despite the fact that pretty much everyone is aware of the above, the neocons in the White House, people like Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland and Joe Biden, continue to push for victory over Russia. Even strong suggestions by top level military advisors like Mark Milley, who have said that Ukraine is not doing well and that they/we should consider negotiations, have been rebuffed.(15)
As I mentioned earlier in this article, it is my opinion that US leadership are now aware that they vastly miscalculated what Russia’s intentions were and what their military capabilities are. These politicians are now playing a face-saving game, pushing forward with what they now realize is an unwinnable war at the expense of hundreds of thousands of human lives.
US leadership knows that the weapons that they are now sending and promising to send to Ukraine, despite their exhorbitant prices, are not near what is required. Nor are these weapons shipments close to the amount that Ukraine requested and said that it needed in order to compete in this war.(16)
Lastly, on a somewhat optimistic note considering the context, I believe that we are going to see US and other Western leaders begin to suggest negotiative talks in the first half of this year. There’s simply no way around facing the fact that this bullet has to be bitten, pardon my use of idiom. The question is, how long will it take and how many will die unnecessarily before these leaders, finally, do the right thing?

This Coming February 19th

On February 19th there will be an anti-war rally in Washington DC the aim of which is to bring an end to this war. The details of which are listed below in the citations section.(17) and here as well: https://www.pressenza.com/2023/02/rage-against-the-war-machine-on-february-19/