Col Doug Macgregor: Time to Get Real / Ukraine Boundaries MUST CHANGE

This discussion centers on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, questioning the current strategies and the role of Western alliances. It suggests that a shift in perspective and a clear statement from the US president are needed to de-escalate the situation and move towards a more stable future for Europe.

• The current approach to the Ukraine conflict is based on flawed assumptions and a misunderstanding of Russia’s security interests.
• European nations, particularly smaller ones, have become overly reliant on American power and have lost their strategic autonomy.
• NATO’s purpose has become outdated, and its continued existence is based on fabricating an enemy.
• A direct and clear statement from the US president that the United States has no interest in war with Russia is necessary to change the current trajectory.
• Territorial expansionism is economically disastrous and a historical loser.
• The conflict in Ukraine is not a direct threat to the core interests of the United States or most European nations.

It seems like many in Europe are living in a fantasy world, believing they hold more sway than they actually do. The idea of the European Union and NATO was built on American, German, and British power, but that foundation is crumbling. The economic strength is gone, and military power is way down. So, these old structures don’t mean much anymore. When leaders make statements to countries like the Netherlands, it says more about the Dutch living in a fantasy than about the actual situation. They think they’re important, but they’re not. This is a big problem in Europe – a lack of leadership and unity.

In Europe, war has largely lost its usefulness. For the last 80 years, peace and stability have made people forget that war can put a society’s very existence at risk. We learned this lesson in the World Wars, but our intervention and presence in Europe for so long have distorted things. We’ve indulged these smaller groups, letting them operate independently when maybe they shouldn’t have. Discussions in meetings often revolve around who will contribute what, like a "coalition of the willing." But there’s no real threat from Russia, and more and more Europeans are realizing this. This idea of a "coalition of the willing" is a dumb idea, and it’s not going to work.

There’s been some advice given that’s quite shocking. One suggestion was to lower the draft age from 25 to 18 to get more manpower. This shows a complete lack of vision or strategy. It’s just about throwing more people into the fight without any real plan for how it will turn things around. It seems like the idea is just to make everyone suffer. This advice, coming from a "friend," completely misses the point about the real risks involved.

If countries want to be in NATO, they need tangible security guarantees, not just promises. They need real troops and capabilities. We need to understand that Donbas isn’t Putin’s final goal. If he takes Donbas, then Ukraine is next. History shows that when one region falls, others are in danger. Some argue that we need to keep giving Ukraine military support, potentially drawing us into a war that should stay between Russia and Ukraine. This thinking is dangerous, especially when you consider the existence of nuclear weapons. The idea that this is like 1938 or 1939 is flawed because of nuclear weapons. If a conflict happens, we could all be destroyed. This thought alone should push for an immediate end to the war.

We’re still stuck thinking about the Soviet Union and Stalin, but Putin is not Stalin, and Russia today is not the Soviet Union. There are no Russian troops massing on the borders of Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia, planning to overrun them. That’s just not true. These people are trying to convince their populations of a threat that doesn’t exist. Territorial imperialism is a loser; it’s an economic disaster. The Russians aren’t interested in occupying other countries. But if leaders insist Russia is a threat and invite foreign military powers into their country to threaten Russia, they will put their country at risk. Neutrality would have been a much better solution for many of these countries.

The small powers, with their own agendas, are trying to make their interests ours. We have no interest in going to war with Russia. This needs to be made very clear. If the President of the United States would simply state that the US has no interest in war with Russia, everything else falls apart. If Russia isn’t a threat, then there’s no real reason to be in an alliance like NATO. NATO’s purpose has vanished, and we’ve ended up fabricating an enemy. The Russians don’t want to be enemies, but they are becoming more powerful.

Looking back to the 1870s, the people in the Baltic region didn’t like Russian control and wanted liberation. They turned to Bismarck for help, but he told them they had to get along with the Tsar. He pointed out that the Tsar wasn’t trying to turn them into Russians and that going to war wasn’t in anyone’s interest. Here we are again, dealing with the same nonsense for the same region. Trying to repurpose an alliance created in the 1950s for a purpose that no longer exists is counterproductive and stupid. It needs to end. For it to end, the President of the United States needs to state publicly that we have no interest in a war with Russia, period.

If the US president makes it clear that we have no interest in war with Russia and will not participate, it will end this situation. It would end the conflict in Ukraine. This was a point made when President Trump was inaugurated; he should have made it clear that we want no part of this. Instead, he fell into the hands of those who argued it would be humiliating or make them look weak. The notion that leaders are running around Europe trying to incite war with Russia is disturbing. Europeans should have more sense and send these people away.

War is not needed anymore. We’ve reached a point where it’s not a useful tool to achieve aims. What we really need is stability, which will lead to prosperity. We’ve destroyed stability, and as a result, prosperity in Europe and the US is being destroyed. The solution is to recreate stability by ending the conflict that doesn’t need to exist. It doesn’t matter who rules Donbas; it’s not important to us. The most useful thing the US president can do is to sober everyone up by stating, "I’m the president, and while I’m president, there will be no war with Russia. Period." If others are willing to cooperate to end the war and recognize that boundaries must change, and that Russia has legitimate security interests, then we can support a peace conference. But right now, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Consider this: What if Mexico were a Ukraine? What if Russians, Chinese, or others went into Mexico, trained, equipped, and armed a force to attack Americans? We all know the answer. Mexico would vanish overnight. It’s time to get real. The US has been like an ADT security system for Europe, at great expense to the American people, while Europeans have paid little or nothing for the security provided. It’s time to pull the plug on that program.