I think the problem of the Ukrainains is precisely that they have built up this legend around themselves and their position in the world that they cannot negotiate. \

They believe they have some sacred calling, and they likewise feel the weight of being anointed by America as a sacred battlefield of democracy.

Moreover, all of the propaganda surrounding the Russians as orcs and, simultaneously, completely incapable in the face of Ukrainian arms, only possessing the ability to send "meat" into the grinder, so to speak, has built up an inaccurate perception of the self which threatens to boil over into more catastrophic failure.

Thus seeing Biden come out and say that he wants Ukraine to 'sharpen' their war plan... Yet, $110 billion in aid and modernized arms could not deliver any decisive defeat to Russia anywhere and, if anything, served to tighten Russia's grip on the Ukraine.

The whole thing has been an abject failure and a mess, and now both Ukraine and America are held captive by their unhelpful and unreasonable rhetoric.