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The West is getting in too deep in Ukraine

By Pankaj Mishra

30 Jan 2023 · 3 min read

Editor's Note

Bloomberg columnist Pankaj Mishra offers a take we haven't seen widely published: There's very good reason to worry, he argues, about the "cheerleading" of military intervention among Western elites.

A treacherous new era in global politics has begun with fresh and dramatic military commitments by Europe and the United States to Ukraine. We should recognize its dangers quickly, without self-deception or euphemism.

Despite almost a year of harsh economic sanctions, and even severe setbacks on the battlefield, Russia appears no readier to negotiate an end to the war. Rather, it has responded by mobilizing additional troops and battering Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin is only likely to escalate further, and more viciously, in response to the West's decision to send battle tanks to Ukraine.

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