Time to Start Thinking What a Post-US-Support Ukraine Will Look Like, Mr. President Biden.

Zelensky: "I have not yet begun to fight! (and don't look now, but it might be too late...) 

I just hope all the weapons America is footing the bill for don't end up on the black market when the Russian incursion ends and "peace" creeps into the lands this wintertime... 

 Collecting weapons and fundraising internationally is much easier than training and employing the weapons afterall. It's work, hard work, and nobody much wants to do it or lose their lives "fighting" at the front, off camera. 

That's a good thing... What if America financed a war, but nobody's heart was really in fighting it?  What could we spend that money on if our values were re-focused, and we put the Pentagon fatcats and all their dependent industries in DC on a national diet?  What could the heartland of the country do with those dollars that theh coasties see fit to ship overseas to blow up and burn?  We're growers, not showers, here.  Just sayin.

CNN — 

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been “slowed down” by entrenched Russian defenses, President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an exclusive interview broadcast on Wednesday, adding that he wished that Western weapons deliveries had allowed it to begin “much earlier.”

Speaking with CNN’s Erin Burnett in Odesa, Zelensky said that in some areas of the country his military cannot “even think of starting” attacks, because it does not have “the relevant weapons.”

“I’m grateful to the US as the leaders of our support,” he told Burnett through a translator, “but I told them as well as the European leaders that we would like to start our counteroffensive earlier, and we need all the weapons and materiel for that. Why? Simply because if we start later, it will go slower.”

The Ukrainian leader added that difficulties on the battlefield were now leading to a “slowed down” counteroffensive.

“I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined. We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines.”

Ukraine's counteroffensive hasn't met expectations. Here's why progress has been slow

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that while the counteroffensive is under way, the main push is yet to come.

Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said last month that Ukraine was holding back some of its reserves and that the “main strike” was still ahead.

In any direction Ukraine chooses to attack, however, time is the enemy, Zelensky told Burnett. “The later we start, the more difficult it will be for us.”

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How do we wrap this one up, end our committment, and "Get Out"?  I say, America should let Russia emulate Israel here:  keep the territories they want, with dubious international recognition, end their "incursion" and get out.  Ukraine, like the West Bank, has a lot of clean up ahead and poses no risk to the invading nation fearful of a strong weak rival on its borders. Neither has much to fear... if the rest of the world stays out and leaves the region to be.* 

We've been here before.  Just with different players.  Zelensky got his arms, had his chance, took his shot, it seems.  The world doesn't owe any country anything, and most don't get U.S. taxpayer support, even if U.S. taxpayers with ties to a homeland or a region are free to send money back home for rebuilding, exodus or even investment should Western businesses one day come.

We don't do this by Military Force on behalf of businesses anymore.  Not in the 21st Century.  Not with our track record.  Not legally.  Not in our names. No. 

*(or not to be. The choice is theirs. Work with one another, until it hurts. Then, rest, rise and work harder...  Dominance via Force is not true dominance. You'll never gain their submission that way.  Negotiate another treaty that future generations can live with.  Guns are not worth more than Lives. "The Meek shall inherit the earth.")

Is meek positive or negative?

Often the word “meek” has a negative connotation as “too submissive.” Other definitions seem slightly more positive: ” slow to anger or resentment.” Let's commit to another definition. A definition that can quickly remind us what is needed if our goal is to be effective with others: Meek = Strength under control.Nov 6, 2020