Col. Douglas Macgregor (ret.) advocates for “The American Conservative,” where he is a senior fellow, today, that on certain occasions (like the present), the U.S. President is obliged to act like the leader of a great power. He contrasts America’s lost blundering with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s directive to most Russian troops to return to garrison and leave their weapons at the Ukraine border. Now, Macgregor says, is the time and opportunity to negotiate what status quo in Ukraine the U.S. and Moscow can both support.
Colonel Macgregor points to the terrible job done by the U.S. of “formulating its strategic aims in the Middle East and Afghanistan, that cost high losses of American lives and treasure.” He calls expanding NATO eastward to include Ukrainian membership was “an unforced error.” And otherwise Mcgregor makes five points.
First, Ukraine is to Russia as Mexico is to the United States, and who rules in Ukraine is as important to the Russians as who rules in Mexico is to the United States. Second, since the Cold War Russia’s military strength has grown, but its military action would bring sanctions that hurt its economy. China’s help in Ukraine for Russia is uncertain. Third, and most important, Biden’s administration must work with Russia and China, and advocate for the principle of “non-interference” in the affairs of other states, rather than what Macgregor calls “Tomahawk Diplomacy,” i.e., killing citizens with cruise missiles. Fourth, America must acknowledge that in a new multipolar environment, the United States bears an “unsustainable financial burden, a danger Eisenhower foresaw.” And fifth, finally, says Macgregor, Biden must devise a new U.S. national strategy that “ensures its political goals are congruent with U.S. military capabilities and fiscal realities.”
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-ukraine-crisis-can-be-an-opportunity/