Thread by @djrothkopf

To those who have called for an "off-ramp" for Putin, I have just one question. Don't you feel ashamed of yourselves? When you look at what is happening in Mariupol, where citizens are being rounded up and kidnapped to Russia, put in camps and forcibly relocated?

Or when you see the rest of the residents of that city suffering without food and water? Or a theater full of mothers and children being bombed? When you hear that the WHO says 44 hospitals and health facilities have been attacked? When you see nuclear facilities being shelled?

Thermobaric weapons being launched? When you see the devastation in city after city where residential neighborhoods are being turned to rubble, city centers into smoldering ghost towns? Why are we obligated to provide Putin with anything other than defeat?

Putin started this carnage without justification. He alone has made the decision to escalate. He has serially violated international laws and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has lied about the threat posed by Ukraine and by NATO and the US.

At no point...at no point...has he responded rationally or given the slightest hint that he had any interest in serious negotiations. He has responded to every good faith effort to end this war with further brutality.

Why would anyone think the world owed Vladimir Putin anything other than prosecution and conviction? What could possibly make anyone think he can be reasoned with? Why would you assume a man who started a war for no reason would need a reason to end it?

I understand the fear of escalation. I understand the concern about further atrocities, further suffering for the people of Ukraine. But thus far the only thing that has spared Ukraine even greater devastation was the victories of Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield.

Thus far, the only reasoning that has kept Putin from seizing Kyiv and destroying it as he has cities in the East is that provided courtesy of western weapons and the resourcefulness and skill of Ukraine's military.

If you want Putin to withdraw, make him withdraw. Continue to squeeze his economy. Continue to provide Ukraine with the military support it needs. There were only ever going to be two ways Putin would leave Ukraine--following a victory and the installation of a puppet regime...

...or following a defeat. We all should want this war to be over as soon as possible. We all should want the suffering of the Ukrainian people to end and the rebuilding of their country to begin. I understand why the idea of off-ramps are so appealing.

But they are rational ideas being offered to placate the madness of a war criminal. Putin is not the master strategist he was made out to be. He is certainly not the savvy statesman Mike Pompeo once described him as.

Putin is a bully and a sociopath. He thrives on the weaknesses of others. He thrives on their rationality and the fact that they are constrained by rules or inclined toward social norms like telling the truth or caring for other humans that mean absolutely nothing to him.

Yes, by all means, seek peace. But recognize that what will move us closer to a cease fire, an end to these horrors, is not offering up a diplomatic gift basket to a monster. He will negotiate seriously when he realizes the cost of this war is too great...

...when the possibility of his defeat is made real to him. The good news is that thanks to the strength of Ukraine's gov't, military & its people, that reality is being made more clear every day. Pres. Zelenskyy & his government have pursued peace
diligently but realistically.

They have communicated that they are willing to listen to Russian proposals. But not only have they found those proposals to be outrageous, they have found that the negotiations are only being used as cover while further escalations and further wanton brutality takes place.

Finally, for those who seek a fig leaf, to provide some way for Putin to think he has won, know that his metrics and yours are different. And that time & time again, when he has violated int'l law, committed atrocities, slaughtered innocents, the world did provide him off-ramps.

It provided him with "settlements" and agreements signed at long negotiating tables. And each and every time...not some times...every time...he violated those agreements. And every time the world enabled him to emerge stronger, he used that strength to commit new crimes.

Chechnya was followed by Syria, Georgia was followed by Crimea. Look at the pictures of Grozny or Aleppo. Compare them to Kharkiv & Mariupol. Why do they look so similar? Because Putin sees every off-ramp provided to him by the world as an entrance on the road to his next target.

We must, after 2 decades, learn the lessons Putin has taken such pains to teach us. There are two choices. Either we stop him this time or he will do this again. Either he pays a price for these crimes greater than any he has known before or we will be right back here again soon.

It is possible to love peace and realize that the only lasting peace will come from the defeat of your enemy. That must be the case here. And if the people of Ukraine choose to reach a ceasefire (and we must support their decisions, they are the ones fighting and dying)...

...then it behooves the rest of the world to ensure that Putin for the rest of his life pays a high price for the crimes he has committed in Ukraine and before.