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Dispatches

1) Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Liberals urge Biden to rethink Ukraine strategy; Democratic lawmakers’ letter calls for direct U.S. talks with Russia,” Washington Post, October 24, 2022 (1:34 p.m. EDT);

UPDATE

2) Nick Allen and Dominic Nicholls, “Biden Left-wingers’ Ukraine peace plan branded ‘olive branch to Putin’ is hastily withdrawn; Grouping of Democrat congressmen and women had suggested a rapid deal with Kremlin to horror of leaders in Kyiv,” The Telegraph, October 25, 2022 (8:12 pm).

Analysis

“The situation is intolerable. Something must be done. Negotiate directly with Russia.”

30 House Democratic “liberals” have revealed their ignorance of what is going on in the war in Ukraine by sending President Biden a letter urging he change course and enter direct negotiations with Russia.

The letter shows they have not been following events in the war closely, and have virtually nothing to contribute to a policy debate about U.S. policy toward Russia and the Ukraine.

Abutaleb quotes Richard Hass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who points out the key issue the “liberal” Democrats should have considered before writing their letter:

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said that neither Russian nor Ukrainian leaders are likely to agree to negotiated compromises right now. The United States has argued that Russia flagrantly violated the United Nations charter by invading its neighbor, which complicates any negotiations because it would put the burden on Washington to explain how any compromise respects the U.N.

Still, Haass, who has held various high-level diplomatic positions in the U.S. government, said it is up to the United States to define what success could look like and to outline acceptable outcomes.

“One of the norms at stake is that territory is not to be acquired through the use of force. For those who favor the United States pushing for a deal, the burden is on them to explain how does the United States do that in a way that’s consistent with that principle,” Haass said. “At the end of the day, the United States cannot subcontract out its foreign policy to Ukraine or anybody else. We never do that.”

Such uninformed pressure on Biden only undercuts Ukraine, Biden and the anti-Russian coalition, while giving Vladimir Putin hope that support for Ukraine in the United States and NATO will weaken.

It also undercuts the Democrats’ criticism of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy who argued recently Congress should not give Ukraine a “blank check” for military and economic assistance, suggesting Kviv could expect only qualified support for assistance from Republicans.

What Democrats should be doing, instead of writing letters like this, is demanding that Biden strengthen his foreign policy team and bring in senior advisors from previous administrations (of both parties) to help him and the U.S. navigate their way through the current nuclear confrontation with Putin and Russia.

This ignorant, uninformed move by Democratic “liberals” is harmful, and does great damage to the united front the U.S., NATO, the EU, and other countries must maintain and project.

This initiative looks like the Democratic “liberals” are staking out their ground as the appeasement wing of the Democratic Party.

UPDATE
October 25, 2025

Nick Allen and Dominic Nicholls of The Telegraph report on the hasty withdrawal by the 30 Democratic House “liberals” of the letter, dated October 24, sent to President Joe Biden yesterday.

The lame excuses offered by the “liberals” reek of sheer incompetence if not also of misrepresentation of the facts. One excuse was that it was drafted “months ago”, and sent out by error.

Another excuse offered by one or more signers of the letter was that circumstances have changed, and they would not sign the letter today.

Allen and Nicholls report,

The letter was drawn up by Pramila Jayapal, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

On Tuesday night, she withdrew it, saying it had been drafted months ago, and “released by staff without vetting”. Several of the signatories said their position had changed since signing it.

“Released by staff without vetting” doesn’t pass the smell test. No one would have released the letter without Ms. Jayapal’s approval.

The letter itself is a mishmash of contradictory ideas, and indeed sounds like a negotiated text.

Whenever it was drafted, it is rubbish. None of these ideas made any sense “months ago”, just as they don’t make any sense today.

Then, as now, it sounds like the appeasement wing of the Democratic Party staking out its ground, and ready to sell out the government in Kviv.

The Trenchant Observer

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