Welcome to the Shit Show
The letter that Paul referred to yesterday has been withdrawn:
Word is that some enthusiastic staffers (possibly in conjunction with the Quincy Institute) did some freelancing on a letter than was not ready for primetime, which is probably why some of the signatories exhibited surprise that the letter was released and why some of the claims seemed dated or incoherent. To be honest I didn’t think that the letter was particularly catastrophic, but it was obvious that it was only half-baked; the signatories called for direct talks while at the same time insisting that Ukraine have a veto over any agreement, which doesn’t really make much sense.