Pete Hendrickson (@LostHorizons)

How Haley's Hawks Brought Carnage To Ukraine by Sohrab Ahmari (with an important afterword by Yours Truly) The Ukraine war could have been brought to a close much earlier, at a much smaller cost in lives and treasure, but for Western hawkism. Once considered a fringe notion, this is fast becoming the bitter conventional wisdom in Washington, London—and Kiev. David Arahamiya, the leader of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, told a Ukrainian outlet that Russia had offered to end hostilities in spring 2022, provided Ukraine stayed out of NATO and maintained neutrality. Arahamiya should know. He headed the Ukrainian delegation to the two rounds of peace talks held that spring in Turkey. The Russians “really hoped almost to the last that they would put the squeeze on us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality,” he recalled. “It was the biggest thing for them.” He added: “They were ready to end the war if we took—as Finland once did—neutrality and made commitments that we would not join NATO. This was the key point.” Team Zelensky was, understandably, mistrustful of Moscow’s intentions. And the prospect of amending the Ukrainian constitution to remove the reference to the country’s NATO aspirations—enshrined there at George W. Bush’s behest—was no doubt daunting. Still, whatever hopes there were of a negotiated settlement were dashed on April 9, when Boris Johnson, then the British prime minister, visited Ukraine, urging war. BoJo, according to Arahamiya, told the Ukrainians that they “shouldn't sign anything with them at all—and let’s just fight.” Yeah, let’s just fight. Continued: https://losthorizons/N/264.htm#4