Putin’s Ukraine Invasion a War of Choice

The endless and in some ways unresolvable debates about how NATO powers and Russia came to be where they are now will go on for years. Did the United States lead Ukraine down a dead end ? Would Russia have always done something like this? Was there some other way, missed years ago, to give Russia some stake in European security arrangements? Was there a path to de-escalation?

In the initial days of war, these debates and many, many more become an occasion for recrimination or advancing one’s pet causes and grievances. A thousand flimsy orthodoxies and assertions die after the action begins. But we have so far one certainty: Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an aggressive war of choice.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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The endless and in some ways unresolvable debates about how NATO powers and Russia came to be where they are now will go on for years. Did the United States lead Ukraine down a dead end ? Would Russia have always done something like this? Was there some other way, missed years ago, to give Russia some stake in European security arrangements? Was there a path to de-escalation?

In the initial days of war, these debates and many, many more become an occasion for recrimination or advancing one’s pet causes and grievances. A thousand flimsy orthodoxies and assertions die after the action begins. But we have so far one certainty: Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an aggressive war of choice.