Retired Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday that the US should work quickly to bring Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
Mullen, who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, told ABC that President Biden should “back off” his talk of nuclear armageddon and work to end the war.
“President Biden’s language — we’re about at the top of the language scale, if you will. And I think we need to back off that a little bit and do everything we possibly can to try to get to the table to resolve this thing,” Mullen said.
He said that it was up to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other diplomats to figure out how to bring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to the table for negotiations.
“As is typical in any war, it’s gotta end and usually there are negotiations associated with that. The sooner the better, as far as I’m concerned,” Mullen added.
When discussing the risk of nuclear war, Mullen said that he has to take Putin seriously since he could use lower-yield tactical nuclear weapons and described the Russian president as a “cornered animal.”
Despite the risks, the Biden administration has not shown interest in pursuing diplomacy with Russia. Blinken has only had one known conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, since Russia invaded on February 24, and the call was focused on a potential prisoner swap, not the war.
Couldn’t say it better. It is the absolute necessity right now, and has been for months. Biden’s current plan is completely bonkers and a deadly fantasy.
Except he’s got the “cornered animal” thing backwards.
They can’t help themselves. They are LIARS comin’ and goin’.
All for it, if talking gets the Russians to withdraw to their 2010 borders that is just great.
Keep dreaming
And that’s why there are no negotiations. Russia wants all or nothing. How can you sit to talk with those demands?
If “our” country had borders, maybe even you could imagine Russian nukes in Sonora and Tijuana.
Ever hear of the Cuban Missile Crisis? I remember it very clearly, and “our” government wanted “all or nothing,” then, too.
All they had to do was remover their nukes from Turkey.
His name was Vasili Arkhipov.
Zelensky isn’t going to ask for your approval if he decides to sit down.
johnny of course “forgets” that the Kiev regime is killing civilians in Donbass, and has been doing so for seven years. The criminals increased the daily shelling to 100 in the fall 2021, and to nearly 2,000 in February, in preparation for the coup regime’s planned invasion of Donbass.
johnny “forgets” that there was a coup in 2014 by organizations funded by Washington because of Joe Biden, who then got $87,000 per month in bribes from the coup regime through his crackhead son.
Russia has always wanted to negotiate, so johnny lies by omission. After saving Donbass from the planned invasion, he offered peace if the criminals would simply follow the Minsk Agreement they had already signed in 2015.
But johnny doesn’t want that to be known, because CNN doesn’t want it to be known. Very obedient.
That was an internal Ukrainian matter, but those “rebels” sure had some top flight military gear as the Malaysian airliner found out.
The Azov Battalions did that.
And how did the US-fostered overthrow of of the legitimately elected government in 2014 make that “an internal Ukrainian matter,” pray?
Famously, there exists an history of 3 Russian attempts to achieve just that. All accepted, then cynically betrayed by the Nazis.
I think this attempt will stick
It might have a chance under a “new European security framework” requiring removal of all NATO assets from Germany and all the former Warsaw Pact and USSR nations along with an admission by Washington & Kiev of aggression against Russia with reparations and war crimes trials under a UN tribunal chosen from neutral, non-western aligned states.
Yup. Poroshenko later explained that he was just buying time to build a better military force.
All this pretend to end of the war is rubbish.
The west will not submit until the world burns and the East would rather see the world burn before they concede. Let’s all hold hands.
All the west cares about is ensuring Russia no longer has any warm water ports, to reduce the relevance of their navy. Strategic hegemony forever.
Oh you have to be kidding. The Russian navy? They have one aircraft carrier which is 40 % the size off a US large aircraft carrier and US has 12 of them. All total NATO operates 30 aircraft carriers of all sizes. One can go down line of all types of ships and get similar results.
Your military awareness is stuck in the wrong century. Aircraft carriers mean very little in the context of air war focused on smart missiles and drones, because manned aircraft are on the way to join buggy whips.
What makes you think that aircraft carriers can only carry manned aircraft? Hint: The US Navy was using carrier-launched drones as early as 1969.
What makes you think that I think that? Aircraft carriers can obviously carry drones, but $14 billion monsters with a crew of 3K and an air wing of 1.5K personnel aren’t necessary or appropriate.
Well, if I supported the existence of a US Navy at all, I’d support cutting the number of Carrier Strike Groups from … what is it now, 13? — to three or four.
But that doesn’t mean carriers as such are obsolete. Throw a Carrier Strike Group and an Expeditionary Strike Group together and you’ve got a pretty good combined arms package with reach beyond those oceans you may have noticed bracket the US.
All the foofooraw about Ukraine aside, the orientation of the US armed forces (especially the Marine Corps) lately is tilted toward the likelihood of a war in the Pacific and/or South China Sea. Depending on who the combatants are and which sides they take, it’s not necessarily obvious that US forces will have convenient dry land facilities to work from, at least at first. A couple of CSGs and ESGs would presumably be necessary to seize initial dry-land objectives so that larger troop deployments have places to operate from.
I’m not saying I approve of that doctrine or the intended/expected wars. But I can see why, given the intention/expectation, the US would still be all about its aircraft carriers and associated vessels, craft, and weaponry.
As for the crew sizes, I’d expect them to remain about the same with drones as with manned aircraft. The drones aren’t necessarily autonomous, and depending on how they’re controlled, it might make more sense for their “pilots” to be co-located with them. Also, there might be quite a few more drones on a carrier than there were previously manned aircraft, meaning at least as many if not more mechanics, ordnance crews, etc.
An excellent reason to consider that rational defense might not require a large blue-water navy with global reach. (I know, crazy talk.)
I think it’s quite unlikely that they would. And that might suggest that there’s no good reason to engage in large-scale warfare in such places.
Your points are valid, but only in a world I don’t think we live in any longer. In a world in which serious opponents are likely to be near-peers with fancy missiles and drones of their own, aircraft carriers seem like an excellent opportunity to sink a lot of air power in a single package.
I’m in favor of US cutting “defense” spending by at least 90% and giving up the “world policeman” routine.
And carriers may be on their way out, but that’s not obvious. The only potential “near-peer” naval powers in the world (China and India) are both going with, um, aircraft carriers as parts of their efforts to become “near-peer” with the US over the next few decades.
Aircraft carriers are only useful against nations that don’t have sophisticated missiles. Russia has those.
So does China.
Ridiculous to build something 1100 feet long to dispatch drones, something that needs a dozen warships and a couple of attack subs as defense.
The carriers are already built. If the drones need less runway, then more of them can be lined up in the spare space for faster launches. The rest of the ships in a Carrier Strike Group are a feature, not a bug, in many respects (beyond the obvious respect of “more money for shipbuilding contractors who donate to politicians”). Their firepower can be directed onshore at an enemy.
Ridiculous to build something 1100 feet long to dispatch drones, something that needs a dozen warships and a couple of attack subs as defense.
Exactly, all the more petty of the US to have merely overwhelming naval advantage.
Let’s hope there are some real men in the Pentagon. Like Vasili Arkhipov in 1962.
The lies just keep coming. Russia has ALWAYS wanted to negotiate. They stepped in to save the Donbass civilians who the Kiev regime were killing with artillery, an artillery that was increased to around 2,000 per day in February in preparation for their invasion.
Russia offered peace immediately, on the condition that the criminals would stop attacking Donbass, and instead stick to the Minsk agreement Kiev signed in 2015. Which the ultra-corrupt Poroshenko had admitted he only signed “to give us time to build a strong army”.
It is Zelensky that refuses to negotiate. He was willing to do so in March, after his planned invasion failed. But Biden sent Boris Johnson to Kiev to tell him not to negotiate. Probably with the promise of endless money if he didn’t negotiate, but otherwise there’d be much less.
But Mullen has to pretend it’s both democratic president Putin and the dictator Zelensky who refuse to negotiate, even though it has always only been Zelensky.
Not *only* Zelensky. Boris (oh! the irony!) Johnson; “Joe Biden” (as he is universally called because I think it’s the only way people can remember his name–or maybe it’s the only way HE can remember his name); dear little Annalena Baerbock, the German Foreign Minister made a public statement to the effect that Germany would stick by Zelinsky to the LAST DROP OF UKRAINIAN BLOOD and that it was a matter of no concern whatsoever what German voters thought or did or said; the chicken hawks in Congress Lindsey Graham being the most repellant now that John McCain is–mercifully–dead and in Hell; Uschi von der Leyen; Monsieur Macron; Justin Trudeau, that paragon of martial virtues; and so on.
Zelinsky is by no stretch of the imagination the ONLY one to refuse to negotiate.
“[I]t has always only been Zelensky” who “refuse[s] to negotiate”? Not the US/NATO?
Your own evidence undermines your claim:
You correctly note that – as has been well-reported – “Biden sent Boris Johnson to Kiev to tell him not to negotiate.”
To which we can add, though it is less publicized, Blinken made a trip very soon after.
To which we can add, the western press at the time reported ‘voices’ in Washington, DC opposed to negotiation.
To which we can add, Zelensky was elected on a peace platform, promising to enforce Minsk, but the US refused to support his popular mandate – refusing to voice support for Minsk, and refusing to make financial and military aid dependent on enforcing Minsk.
To which we can add, the US had increased the long- and short-term likelihood of Russian military action by refusing to take Ukraine NATO membership off the table – in 2021 upgrading Ukraine’s pre-NATO status, publicly stating Ukraine would eventually be a NATO member, and flatly dismissing a December 2021 Russian diplomatic demand that Ukraine be permanently neutral.
Upshot: contrary to what you write, Ukraine is the puppet and proxy of US foreign policy. Johnson offered Z. money or less money? More likely he hinted NATO would not give Ukraine security guarantees if it went through with its peace deal w/Russia.
“Retired Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday that the US
to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.”
This comment will not be well received by the NEOCON Victoria Nuland or the fool Lloyd J Austin who both want to “Bleed Russia”.
Voldomort Zelensky has been directed by the UK and US to fight until the last Ukrainian is dead!
No. Not until the last Ukrainian is dead. Zelansky and his cronies will survive. Like cockroaches.
In fact, they will prosper.
From the guy who’s first principal is “Military power should not be the last resort of the state.” But compared with others in the MSM howling for nuclear war, sold as more reasonable for mentioning negotiations. It could be a smoke screen to continue to sell the same narrative, while appearing more balanced. I could be wrong. He could be possibly working the math on how many humans would survive a nuclear war with Russia.
You’re right. He’s a skunk.
“LIAR” is the word you are looking for.
“Despite the risks, the Biden administration has not shown interest in pursuing diplomacy with Russia.”
“[H]as shown no interest in pursuing”? It’s important to be precise here, Dave:
whether by the arbitrary assertion that ‘only Ukraine can decide whether/when to negotiate’…
or by the assertion ‘it’s Russia that will not (seriously) negotiate’ (where ‘serious’ means ‘first Russia leaves, then we can talk’)…
or by endless-war-vague assertions that ‘we are giving military aid as long as it takes, so there will come some future day that Russia is weakened and so negotiations are possible’…
the Biden administration has positively rejected pursuing diplomacy – even as the destruction and killing of young men continues, even as both Ukraine and Russia radicalize, even as escalation increases the risks of nuclear war…
…and even as majorities of Americans poll as wanting US diplomacy:Poll: “Americans support quick diplomatic end to war in Ukraine
More voters also said they want Washington to actively engage in diplomacy as a condition for sending military aid.” [Responsible Statecraft, 9/22)
“
Whoever sabotaged Nordstream does not want peace. Because this removes one possible bargaining chip from the peace table. The Russians obviously would not sabotage it as they can easily turn tje gas off and on at will . This leaves European or American agents. Hard to believe Euros would do it without US clearance. This means someone in the USA is actively working to escalate this conflict. Either with Biden’s blessing or Biden’s acquiescence.
Could also be the British.
The original evil empire.
Too bad nobody in Washington gives a tinker’s DAMN what Americans want.
Or or anyone who isn’t “them”.
LOL! Yepper! Anybody who is (lucky enough) not (to be) “them.” Can you IMAGINE being them?? “Deplorables” is wholly inadequate!
The opportunity came and went April, 2022 when Boris checked in to tell Zelenski not to do it. It has been revealed that was the month Britain planned the bombing of the Kersh bridge (The Grayzone)
Wars end when one of two things happen. Both sides get tired of the losses and want to settle or one side wins. At this point neither condition exists. So the war will continue.
Realistically, at this point the war will only end when Ukraine is ready to negotiate after they enter an April 1945 stage.
Probably. But also probably, that might not be far in the future, judging by recent events.
“He said that it was up to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other diplomats”
At least he has a sense of humor. Implying Blinken is a diplomat. Good one.
Hubris is still on the rise. Can these people hear themselves? Cornered animal? It is Russia that has taken initiative every step of the way. It is Biden, the ruler of the West, that has been backfooted every step of the way.
Our media and politicians continuously define what the war is all about, and continuously tell us what Russia was suppossed to do, but failing. No need to ask Russia — we know it all.
Is there any awareness left anywhere just how this blindness is perceived around the globe. Clearly not.
Russia has created numerous avenues for negotiations. And crested space on the ground for negotiations.
During several phases of the conflict, there were prriods if pause. Clearly, Russia was checking into the willinness of all parties concerned — Zrlenskii being a pawn is understood,
Each such opportunity was blown with derision. Typically, Russia presumably had problems. No supplies, lost tanks, had to withdraemw from Kiev, etc etc.
Russia’s position never changes in respect to TWO DEMANDS: Denazifiication, end of oppression of Russian speakers, and demilitarization — no Ukraine in NATO and no NATO weapons in Ukraine.
Beyond this — a process of attrition. First it was Donetsk and Lughansk, being recognized as independent. Talks ended — Russia went ahead and added Kherson, Zaporozhie. There was a pause — before referendums. Russia must have proposed the solution that would in addition to 2 mandatories, include ceding of the remainder of Donetsk and Zaporozhie to Russia without fighting, and recognition of territories as Russian.
The answer came in Nord Stream and Crimean bridge sabotage.
Another opportunity lost.
Now another phase, Besides introducing a mini version ofvshock and awe, itvremains to be seen what is the further direction in achieving stated goals.
The stories about Russia’s loses, mobilization, etc are all portrayed as Rusdia’s weaknesses, justifying further agressive posture.
All such “wise” people arguing for negotiations are doing is providing motivation for more agressive posture. When in a hole, just dig deeper.
There is very little likelihood of Putin-Zelenski talks. Zelenski is a symbol of attrocities perpetrated against ethnic Russians. He and Nazi security apparatus surrounding him are indistinguishable.
“Our media and politicians continuously define what the war is all about, and continuously tell us what Russia was supposed to do, but failing. No need to ask Russia — we know it all.”
This has amazed me constantly. I had NO IDEA how much untapped psychic power was barging around Western countries! Although it does seem useless where the economy and “pandemics” and “public health” are concerned. It is a kind of psychic tunnel vision, but hot damn! it is THERE!
It seems that fully HALF the population can read Putin’s mind at any given moment. They always know what he is thinking and what he would have done if he were not a “cornered animal.”
Of course, we now know that Mr Putin possesses extraordinary psychic powers himself. We know, for example, that merely by thinking malign thoughts, he can cause prices to rise throughout the Western world! But he, like our intrepid leaders, has been hiding his light under a bushel, lying in wait for the right time to work economic, financial and fiscal havoc in the West merely with the power of his MIND.
The whole thing has revealed psychic power of an extent that I would never even have imagined!
He also plays the piano nicely and made a YouTube vid singing Blueberry Hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekeq4szDmJo
The war happened because before the war Blinken would not talk to them. He has proudly announced he never even called them for weeks before.
Talk now? Why now? Never did before. That is how Blinken made this mess.
“Mullen […] described the Russian president as a ‘ “cornered animal.’ ”
They can’t help but lie. Lies and nothing else but! Yes, it’s good that he has said publicly that the war must end, but he couldn’t get through his little speech without LYING.
Cornered animal indeed!
I wouldn’t characterized Putin as “cornered,” necessarily, but he’s certainly in a difficult position due to the Ukraine miscalculation.
If he’d managed the quick victory a la Georgia that almost everyone expected, he’d have increased his popularity at home among both forces that keep him in power (the oligarchs who run him and the population who at least tolerate him).
Once it turned into a fiasco, he couldn’t please both those forces. Since the hardliner imperialist oligarchs can more quickly and easily … “retire” … him than the increasingly anti-war population, he’s still toeing the former group’s line (which is also less immediately personally embarrassing, although that could change).
He’s proven himself pretty adept at threading political needles in the past. Whether he can find a way to declare “victory” and pull Russia’s teat out of the wringer in a way that doesn’t end up with him, at a minimum, “retiring to spend more time with his family” (or, more likely, suffering a terrible accidental fall from a window) looks pretty uncertain. But he may be up to it.
Said teat(s) in the ringer appears to be Western leaders who are being replaced. Winter is coming.
The Russian oligarchs were mostly defanged in Russia more than a decade ago. You might want to try and keep up.
“If he’d managed the quick victory a la Georgia that almost everyone expected … .”
Perhaps, although I am at something of a loss to grasp why he should have done what “almost everyone expected.” Perhaps he didn’t want a smoking ruin right next door. It would be too much of a stretch for us to imagine Joe Biden not wanting Mexico to be a smoking ruin, but there are people (including me) who don’t think that would be a good thing for us.
But I don’t think it’s a stretch to ASSUME (yes!) that Mr Putin MAY have thought (I’m uncertain about that, not possessing the amazing psychic powers of the American commentariat, all of whom seem to know what he has been thinking every step of the way and all of whom seem to think that he ought to have prosecuted the war according to THEIR opinions and on their schedule) that turning the country next door from a pretty efficient agricultural producer into a smoking ruin, generating a refugee crisis on his doorstep, not to mention the welfare of the Donbass Russians, one of his oft-stated political objectives, would have been a good idea.
Anyway, I find it difficult to imagine just WHY Mr Putin should have given a tinker’s damn about other people’s expectations.
“Once it turned into a fiasco, … .”
That is truly amazing intelligence information. May I know the source of it? If you are sworn to secrecy, you needn’t endanger your life or mine by revealing your sources, but you very CLEARLY have inside knowledge not available to me. All I have it the English- and French-language websites–the ones I trust, and there are several. Unlike you, I have to rely on open-source info. And I’ll say here and now that I miss Justin Raimundo.
“Whether he can find a way to declare “victory” and pull Russia’s teat out of the wringer … .”
Judging from the recent past, Id’ say that once he has reduced the Ukraine to a 17th-century living standard with the tanks and the Belorussian troops committed to “support” roles until the end of February, and with the ballistic missiles of which he has enough to last for years now, even without new manufactures, he won’t have to bother with declaring victory or anything else, since it will be glaringly obvious to the whole world.
It’s a shame that the Ukraine will be a smoking ruin, but that will be squarely at Washington’s doorstep. Well, and that of Boris (oh! the irony!) Johnson and that new girl, Truss (also hilarious!) who has told us more than once that she is “prepared to be unpopular,” which is pretty lucky for her, since her poll numbers are now precisely what Boris’s were when his party dumped him.
Here’s the bottom line: The Western political class is totally committed to destroying Russia AND their own countries. And I’d be the rent that they will succeed in one of those dubious goals and, to quote the Scriptures, “that right early.”
But it won’t be Russia.
Georgia was not turned into a “smoking ruin.” It was a quick, efficient war in which the objectives were achieved and the matter brought to an end.
The source of the information that it turned into a fiasco is that it’s coming up on eight months and has resulted in “partial mobilization” to try to save.
The western political class is totally committed to feeding its military-industrial complex. If Putin hadn’t made it convenient for them to use Ukraine for that purpose, they’d have found another someone else.
“A glimmer and then–a gleam of light!”
How long and in which branch did you serve in the armed forces?
11 years, US Marine Corps (enlisted, infantry). Why?
Thanks.
I’ve tried three times now to get to you in the comment thread, but to no avail. I want to post a map there for you, which would answer your question, a map being worth a thousand words. So I’m going to TRY to post from the reply notice in my email inbox and hope for the best. I am not ignoring you, and I do appreciate your back-and-forth.
And as former infantry, you won’t need explanation of the map–IF I can post it from here. I’ll post THIS note now, and then try to post the map in another window. (The I am going to bed)
Pls stand by,.
I’m not sure what the comment thread problem is. Is Disqus giving you some kind of error message? I don’t see anything from you in the queue of comments that Disqus holds as e.g. possible spam.
What I did was to right-click on the map image, left-click on “copy image,” then right-click in the blank space to rely to you (Disqus), then, get the drop-down, then left-click on “paste.” That always roks, but last night it didn’t. And that is ALL I know about computers. Anything beyond that, I ask my grandson. All I can do is type.
Hmm … what I find concerning is that nothing came through at all, so far as I can tell. Not a blank message or anything. Nothing in the “this might be spam” or “this may violate various guidelines” holding pens. Just nothing.
The only suggestion I can make is instead of “copy image,” try “copy image address” and just post the link. That might get caught in spam, but if so I’ll rescue it.
Tried that. And it displayed the link when I sent it to myself. But the whole thing (the map illustrates an article) is for paid subscribers only, and I just don’t think I can give away any of the site owner’s income. It just seems dishonest. Well, no, not “seems”; it IS dishonest, so you’ll have to let me off the hook for that.
But sending you the map alone does not seem dishonest to me b/c it’s not HIS map; he got it form somewhere else to use on his site.
But that means that I might be able to find it somewhere and send it to you, so I’ll try to do that very thing this morning, if I may impose upon you to “stand by.” I’ll look for a map like the one under consideration her and will let you know what I find, if anything. I have a couple of ideas already as to where he might have gotten the map.
Well, it’s not going to work. Maybe I’ll try it again tomorrow. Bedtime for me now, though. Thanks for your (presumed!) patience.
A note of explanation: The map is from behind a paywall in a subscribers-only website, so maybe that’s the problem. But with your infantry experience, you’d see what I mean. Well, If you could see the damned thing!