Should have ended in March 2022...

 and would have, had the US not gotten involved in gun running them Hope, with the goal of using Ukrainians to bleed out the Russian Army at such a cost to the remainder of their country.*  

In the end, I suspect the "settlement" after all these years of death and destruction will be much the same if the Ukrainians had not "fought back" and had their little moment of glory in being able to attack Russia proper with US -taxpayer-supplied weapons, even though they were only to be used to defend their borders...

Americans don't much care whether a Russian-speaking region of Ukraine is recaptured by Russia or not.  The US is not threatened.  Let NATO take up their membership rolls without US intervention.

Everything we touch escalates death and destruction of late... the American 21st century, the boomers' legacy, what happened to the world under their watch..

I think the WWI soldiers would be saddened that we didn't learn anything from them:  Ukraine has sacrificed so much life for so little in land...  what a worthless little war that could have been avoided if the US had not stepped up to put our thumb on the scale... with intention of a proxy war where Ukrainians, civilians even, could pay in their lives for taking out as many Russians as possible before the "optimists" are forced to reckon with reality...

Guest Essay

Ukraine Is Running Out of Optimists

There is safety in simply trusting that the worst will happen. To dare to hope has always been the risk.

3h ago

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* Still I would not give you false hope, on a cold December day... but the mother and child reunion is only a negotiation away...

Let's bring the Ukrainians and the Russians still fighting over territory back to their families for a peaceful Christmas truce. I hope the Ukrainians will accept how they've been played and learn not to trust America for their defensive needs anymore.  We used them, their lives, for our own selfish interests... ask Hunter BIden and the businessmen doing their business in Ukraine pre-war how it all worked out for them... somebody made money off all that carnage.

ADDED:  Let's wind this thing down on November 19, and call it The Thousand Day War?