Putin holds out for domination

OPINION:

I’ll never forget the most unexpected conversation I had with my uncle Fred back in December 2006 after I returned from Iraq.

We were talking about the George W. Bush administration’s counterinsurgency strategy and troop surge when, somehow, I found myself listening with rapt attention as Uncle Fred reminisced for the first time in my presence about his heroic military service as a U.S. Army tank gunner during World War II.

After landing in Normandy, Uncle Fred fought all the way through the Battle of the Bulge, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart as a result of the serious injuries he sustained from shrapnel that would cause him medical distress for the rest of his life. Uncle Fred’s commanding officer told him he was eligible to be sent home immediately, but he chose to remain with his unit, fought all the way to Berlin and returned home only after Europe had been liberated and Nazi Germany defeated.

Never before had Uncle Fred even begun to describe to me his experiences on the front lines in the most savagely destructive war in human history.

After returning home, he kept his post-traumatic stress to himself. His mischievous sense of humor and larger-than-life personality concealed deep inner torment over losing so many of his soldier comrades while serving in Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, engaged in heavy combat in the Ardennes forest against hundreds of thousands of Nazi troops, the largest and bloodiest battle the U.S. fought in the war.

As a civilian, Uncle Fred swiveled his life as far away from war as possible. He started a family, studied classical music at the Boston Conservatory and enjoyed a 70-year career as a virtuoso violinist. During a two-year run at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, he performed alongside Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Fats Domino.

Having passed away in 2018, just a few months shy of his 96th birthday, Uncle Fred was spared the horrific deja vu of Vladimir Putin’s launch of the most destructive land war in Europe since World War II.

Mr. Putin is responsible for well over 1 million casualties to Russian and Ukrainian troops, as well as the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, whom the Russian military has deliberately targeted in their homes, neighborhoods, maternity wards and hospitals.

Ukraine, which has never wanted anything but peace, chose self-defense over capitulation. Every time Ukraine offers concessions in some new iteration of a peace offering, Mr. Putin responds not with constructive diplomacy but with another round of ballistic missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and civilian population.

Mr. Putin creates the false impression that he favors dialogue with President Trump and Mr. Trump’s envoys, but Mr. Putin seeks only to delay implementation of the massive sanctions package the Senate has approved and which now awaits the president’s signature.

Mr. Putin also wants to direct our frustration at Ukraine — rather than the Kremlin, where the blame belongs — for failure to end the war. He wishes to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Europe, break NATO and demonstrate that the U.S. is powerless to project power in the Kremlin’s self-designated post-Soviet sphere of influence.

Further negotiations with Ukraine are serving the Kremlin more than the cause of peace because Mr. Putin has never shown any interest in stopping his barbaric war short of Ukraine’s complete surrender. As a sovereign state, Ukraine should decide the number of soldiers in its army, whether to host NATO troops and when to hold elections. How hypocritical of Mr. Putin, Russia’s dictator for life, to make such demands of democratically elected Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Having lived through the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, which contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Putin will likely escalate threats and gray zone hybrid warfare against Europe while seeking to curry favor with the U.S. with an eye toward escaping the consequences of having wantonly spilled so much blood.

Hardly a day has gone by that I have not recalled with great reverence Uncle Fred’s inspiring service to our nation. He was a distinguished member of the Greatest Generation, which fought until the enemy marauders were vanquished. Today, Ukraine’s courageous army embodies its spirit.

Rather than make repeated entreaties to the Kremlin for an illusory peace replete with specious commercial deals that have no chance of being realized under Mr. Putin’s lawless, kleptocratic dictatorship, NATO should, under U.S. leadership, ensure that Ukraine has the military strength necessary to create the conditions for a ceasefire by stopping Russia’s invading army in its tracks.

• Daniel N. Hoffman is a retired clandestine services officer and former chief of station with the Central Intelligence Agency. His combined 30 years of government service included high-level overseas and domestic positions at the CIA. He has been a Fox News contributor since May 2018. He can be reached at danielhoffman@yahoo.com.