Please, no bubbles in Ukraine

He drills this concept into his team, which has won three Virginia state championships and is nationally ranked. But what does this seemingly innocuous phrase really mean?

Actually, it’s pretty transparent and easy to grasp for a group of teenagers. It translates into the simple concept of crushing your opponent. Making sure that an opponent is denied the ability to come back and win: Don’t let them come up for air. Baseball is a sport in which comebacks are commonplace, so there can be no mercy even when a team is up big. The idea of never kicking someone when they are down is turned on its head. Is this lack of sportsmanship?

Absolutely not. On the contrary, it’s a phrase borne of the understanding that you play hard, every inning of every game until it is over. Until then, your opponent can always come back.

I think of “No Bubbles” every day when analyzing the Russia-Ukraine conflict. That principle is how many of us veterans of the U.S. national security community, folks who know a thing or two about President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, want to see U.S. policy evolve. “No bubbles” must be the U.S. mantra in Ukraine. Putin must be shown no mercy. His military must be left significantly weakened. But I’m left with a question: Why do some see this approach as untoward?

After all, this is the leader whose security services conducted a chemical weapons attack in Salisbury in the United Kingdom in 2018. It was an assault that killed an innocent British woman and seriously wounded four others, including a police officer. It could have killed thousands more. Putin is the same leader whose military has committed heinous war crimes across the globe, from Chechnya to Syria to Ukraine. The same leader who has repeatedly disrupted elections in the United States and all across Europe. Why give Putin any reprieve in Ukraine?

Instead, I say that we show Putin’s cabal no quarter. “No bubbles” does not mean seeking regime change in Moscow. I’m simply talking about helping the Ukrainians defeat Russia inside Ukraine in a way that deters further Russian aggression elsewhere. Nor am I calling for the introduction of NATO forces into the conflict. Given the spectacular success of the Ukrainian military combined with the titanic failure of their corrupt and incompetent Russian counterparts, NATO likely isn’t even needed in order for Ukraine to win. But please, let’s not quibble over helping Ukraine take back territory that belongs to its people.

We need to be very careful and not heed suggestions from France, Germany, Italy, and, regrettably, the New York Times editorial board last week that somehow we avoid humiliating Putin. That instead, we should offer the former KGB lieutenant colonel an “off-ramp” in fear he will resort to irrational aggression if Ukraine actually wins. Let’s be clear, these calls for compromise on Putin’s terms represent classic appeasement. They are defined by arrogant immorality and even a sense of detached imperialism. How dare we tell Ukraine what it can or cannot do in a very fight for its existence? A fight we must always remember Russia started.

Yes, we all know that Putin has a lot of nuclear weapons. And yes, we need always to calibrate how much we are doing in Ukraine’s support and in what ways we’re doing it. CIA Director Bill Burns has rightly confirmed that the U.S. intelligence community is laser-focused on Russia’s nuclear weapons posture. If we see any Russian movement here, I’m sure the Biden administration will release the relevant information as a deterrent effect. And openly pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping to get Putin to back down. Still, there is absolutely no significant sign that Russia is contemplating the use of nuclear weapons at this time.

We must also remember that our close allies in eastern Europe need us. And our leadership. French President Emmanuel Macron can pontificate all he wants and act the fool, but just ask the Baltic and Nordic nations what they think about giving Putin an “off-ramp.” I bet they would subscribe to my “No Bubbles” theory in fine fashion. They know that Putin needs to be deterred. That’s why Finland and Sweden have decided to join NATO, something unthinkable just three months ago.

So let’s keep the weapons flowing. Keep up the provision of tactical intelligence. Help Ukraine win and win big.

I was once a practitioner of the dark arts, and if not for my retirement, I would likely be in the region working side by side with my Ukrainian counterparts. I would want to look my Ukrainian brothers and sisters in the eye and be proud that the U.S. is doing all we can to help. No half measures. Don’t give “just enough” to get the Ukrainians to the negotiating table. Instead, push the “No Bubbles” mantra to let Ukraine regain all territory that Russia so callously and impetuously took from them.

No bubbles.

I know my Ukrainian counterparts would roar in approval.