Key Points and Summary – Retired General David Petraeus, the famed commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has a stark message for the West: to end the war, you must first “stop them cold.”
-In a new interview, Petraeus argued that no ceasefire is possible until the U.S. and its allies provide enough aid to dramatically change the dynamics on the battlefield.
-He noted that Russia has been willing to absorb over a million casualties, so only a decisive military reversal will force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and abandon his “unacceptable” demands for Ukraine’s surrender.
Stop Them Cold: The New Ukraine War Strategy?
The general who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and later served as director of the CIA, offers some advice for the West regarding a favorable outcome in the war between Russia and Ukraine: change the battlefield dynamics.
Retired Gen. David Petraeus, who pioneered new doctrines of counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now the chairman of the KKR Global Institute, weighed in on the Russia/Ukraine war in comments to the Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent, Alex Raufoglu.
“I don’t foresee a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine until the US, European and other Western countries provide so much assistance to Ukraine that they can change the dynamic on the battlefield,” Petraeus told the outlet.
He added that Russia has been willing to take a high number of casualties, more than 1 million since the war began, Ukraine’s military has said — and that willingness is likely to continue.
“That’s the kind of cost he’s been willing to bear. So you would have to do something very dramatic. You have to stop them cold on the battlefield,” the general said.
“Stop Them Cold”
For Russia to consider ending the war, the general said, Ukraine must “stop them cold, perhaps even push them back a bit.” That would likely require an amount of financial and military support from the West, beyond what they have provided up until now.
As of now, in recent peace talks, Russia has made such demands as Ukraine agreeing to cede disputed territory, limit its military, and remain neutral in the future- demands that the retired American general agreed were “obviously unacceptable to President Zelensky and really to the Ukrainian people.”
Petraeus, long retired from the military, has been speaking frequently lately about geopolitical matters. He also appeared on CNN in late June to discuss the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and took part in a discussion earlier this month, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on what the next steps are in Washington and Tehran.
“We should recognize this is by no means unique to the current situation. If you look at what happened prior to the invasion of Iraq, there was more than a bit of a predisposition that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them,” Petraeus said in the Carnegie discussion.
“It was an article of faith that it actually did exist. In fact, we bombed it a couple of times, and the description was that we had degraded their means for production and delivery. There was a search for intelligence to justify that particular predisposition and the action that would result from that.”
A New Job
KKR, the international private equity firm, announced in April that it had appointed retired Gen. Petraeus to the position of chairman for the Middle East, as part of a newly expanded team in that region.
“In his expanded role, General Petraeus will leverage his extensive Middle East knowledge and stakeholder relationships to strengthen KKR’s presence and partnerships in the region,” the firm announced in its press release.
“The Middle East is emerging as a leading investment powerhouse with a clear vision, impressive innovation, strong fiscal position, and increasingly partnership-orientated private sector and governments,” the general said in the release.
“We see growing opportunities for KKR to partner with leading domestic businesses, bringing differentiated expertise to deliver value while supporting governments’ strategic economic goals. It will be a pleasure to be spending considerable time in the Middle East, and to help build on regional momentum and contribute to its growing global presence.”
In late June, Petraeus was announced as having participated as an investor in a funding round for a company called Clearspeed, a company whose mission is to “combat fraud with Voice AI.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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