“A Decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind” Mandates a Search for Peace in Ukraine

The Trump administration’s attempt to bring stable peace to Ukraine has failed. The war is thus set to continue, without a radical change, but with a slowly deteriorating situation for Ukraine. The United States is no longer capable of supplying Ukraine with adequate numbers of the air defense systems necessary to prevent Russia from steadily destroying Ukrainian infrastructure. The coming bitter winter is likely to drive millions more Ukrainians to seek refuge in the West. Russia does not necessarily need to win on the battlefield if it can turn Ukraine into a permanently ruined state and a burden on Europe that European electorates will not sustain indefinitely.

While this conflict lasts, it will also present a permanent risk that the US will be dragged into direct conflict with Russia, and a certainty that the US will be distracted from other urgent and essential goals at home and abroad. The danger of the war spreading to engulf Europe and the US has been highlighted by the Russian threat to seize European ships in retaliation for their seizure of ships of Russia’s “shadow fleet.” Whatever Trump may think, should this happen it would be impossible for the US to remain aloof—and once a cycle of escalation begins, will anyone be able to stop it?

For the sake of the American people and the international community, most of which ardently desires and needs an end to this war, it is for the new American left to take up the search for peace, and to press for this if the Democratic Party wins control of Congress this November, and of the presidency in 2028.

For US progressives to pursue peace strongly and consistently will, however, take a radical break with the attitudes and policies of the Democratic Party establishment stretching back for more than a century. It will also require a willingness to overrule existing centrist governments in Europe.