Opinion: Peace talks needed to end hostilities

I have written before about the George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I’ve also noted that when I first became aware of that quote, I assumed that the “cannot remember the past” part referred to some significant length of time, maybe a century or two. Alas it’s much less than that.

Recently the Pentagon confirmed that there were, indeed, American troops on the ground, in Ukraine. These troops were not combat troops, rather they were “weapons inspectors.” In the past these troops were called advisors, or instructors or maintenance personnel.

Following right along with the Vietnam scenario, we sent weapons to Ukraine, then we sent more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, and now we have sent weapons inspectors to Ukraine. The only thing we have left to do is to insert “combat troops.”

These troops, in the form of the 101st Airborne, are in place and “ready to go” according to former Gen. David Petraeus. Gen. Petraeus also cited a coalition of NATO troops to perform the insertion, but for some reason, walked that suggestion back and mentioned a “coalition of the willing” for the mission. Evidently, Petraeus couldn’t get all of NATO (Hungary and others have balked about sending troops into Ukraine.) to back this scheme, and had to settle for a what Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor has called a “coalition of the coerced.”

According to news sources, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has had clandestine conversations with the Russians about the possibility of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. The stories seem to indicate that Sullivan is one of the few White House insiders who favor these negotiations.

As has also been previously reported, negotiations between the two principals had been being conducted during late March, in Istanbul, Turkey. According to published reports, these discussions were thwarted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, when he visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and convinced him to continue hostilities.

In late July, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivered a speech in Romania where he said that sanctions against Moscow have not worked. Orban further stated that, “Ukraine will never win the war this way quite simply because the Russian army has asymmetrical dominance.”

The money quote from the Orban speech is, “As Russia wants security guarantees, this war can be ended only with peace talks between Russia and America.”

Note the, “peace talks between Russia and America” phrase. Orban is correct.

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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