'An
article worthy of respect. The Biden policy on Ukraine has been a global disaster. He had a chance to commit to democracy and NATO, and he blew it..'
- Prof. Phillips P. O’Brien (
Source, October 26, 2024)
'How much of this could have been prevented? Some developments, such as the China-Russia axis and rising rightwing populism, were happening anyway. The war simply accelerated them. But a lot of the wider damage was avoidable, wholly or in part.
In Warsaw, Biden was candid, almost boastful: back in January 2022, US intelligence knew that the invasion was imminent. He said he had repeatedly warned Putin it would be a big mistake. Yet, given his passionate belief that Ukraine’s fight for democracy and freedom has vital universal significance, surely what Biden should have done is told Russia’s dictator bluntly: “Forget it. Don’t invade. Or else you will find yourself fighting a better-armed, more powerful Nato.”
It’s called deterrence. It’s what Nato is for. Containment was never enough. Putin might still not have listened. But coward that he is, he probably would have – and saved everyone a world of pain.'
- Simon Tisdall,
Joe Biden’s big blunder: how the war in Ukraine became a global disaster, October 26, 2024
'Analytic error of some kind is inevitable. But in the case of the Russia-Ukraine military analysis, the errors (a) were well beyond the normal failures expected in any intellectual project, (b) had potentially consequential policy implications, and (c) were not, in most cases, mitigated by any noticeable analytic humility or caution on the part of those committing them. It is also striking that the analysts who were most egregiously wrong in their assessments remained prominent and influential despite these errors.'
- The Russia-Ukraine War, A Study in Analytic Failure, p. 47 (
pdf)
Context'If Ukraine wins, the whole tide of the anti-democratic movement can be halted and reversed.'