Had I been reading the dead tree edition of the NYT, I would have considered Bret Stephans' latest column a waste of wood pulp. Online, it's mostly just a waste of time. Stephans decided to use his sinecure at the Grey lady to argue Vladimir Putin's disastrous war of choice in Ukraine is a canny gambit to come away with the supposedly energy rich eastern part of the country while sticking the bill to the Western powers.
it almost makes sense, until you think of the price being paid by Ukrainian civilians and the comically inept Russian army. By the time some sort of peace treaty is signed, tens of thousands will be dead and millions displaced. The very definition of a madman would perfectly fit this situation. Of course, the Bush administration's war of choice in Iraq fit the same mold, but I digress.
Stephans has just given Tucker Carlson the license to continue the meme of Putin's supposed strategic brilliance. That alone would make me wish i had never read the piece.
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