This is not a question of fighting for Danzig or fighting for Poland. We are fighting to save the whole world from the pestilence of Nazi tyranny and in defence of all that is most sacred to man. This is no war of domination or imperial aggrandizement or material gain; no war to shut any country out of the spotlight and means of progress. It is a war, viewed in its inherent quality, to establish, on impregnable rocks, the rights of the individual, and it is a war to establish and revive the stature of man.
—Winston S. Churchill, “A War to Establish and Revive the Stature of Man” (Speech to House of Commons), September 3, 1939.1
BACKGROUND
1)James Rowles, “European countries can seize the initiative by placing troops in Ukraine (corrected); There is no deal to be reached with Putin,” Trenchant Observations, August 17, 2025.
2)James Rowles, “Munich and Anchorage,” Trenchant Observations,, August 16, 2025.
When Winston Churchill was asked after he became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940 what his goals in the war were (World War II), his answer was “Victory.” In his first speech to the House of Commons as Prime Minister on May 13, 1940, he declared:
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering….
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal (emphasis added).
Winston S. Churchill,Speech to the House of Commons, “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat,” May 13, 1940.2
The greatest defect in Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s strategy for responding to Russia’s invasions of Ukraine (in 2014 and 2022), and of that of Donald Trump, has been the failure to clearly set forth the goal of victory—including the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.
When we look at what is at stake in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, we can see that Churchill’s words of May1940 are of continuing and extraordinary relevance today.
While few Western leaders have publicly acknowledged the fact, Putin’s war constitutes the wholesale rejection of the United Nations Charter and international law, including international humanitarian law (the law of war) and international human rights law.
Russia’s aggression and barbarism in the conduct of the war, based on a strategy of the systematic commission of crimes against humanity, represents an existential challenge to our current civilization based on reason and law.
We cannot expect appeasement of Putin and Russia to lead to a future of stability, reason, and law.
Unfortunately, President Donald Trump is embarked on a course of appeasement of Putin.
Nonetheless, it appears unlikely that the Trump-Putin peace proposal that emerged from their meeting in Anchorage on August 15, 2025 will ever come into effect.
What position might the Europeans take as Putin refuses to make any concessions and the war continues?
One course would be to join pressures on Ukraine to accede to Trump’s appeasement and accept the imposition by Trump on Ukraine of a “deal” that satisfies Putin’s demands for the cession of Ukrainian territories to Russia.
Such a “deal” would undermine the U.N. Charter’s prohibition of the Illegal use of force across international frontiers, and peremptory norms of international law that provide that any international agreement concluded as the result of coercion (e.g., military force) is void and that territory acquired by military conquest may never be recognized under international law. This latter prohibition has been U.S. policy since 1932 when under the Stimson Doctrine the U.S. refused to recognize the Japanese conquest of Manchuria in 1931 and the puppet state of Manchuko which Japan set up.
Another option would be to stake out a position that is clear and aimed at victory. Such a plan might include the following elements:
Any ceasefire or peace settlement must comply with the U.N. Charter and international law.
Ukraine should be admitted to the European Union on the fastest track possible.
Ukraine should be put on the fastest track possible for NATO membership.
War crimes committed in Ukraine should be prosecuted.
The 20,000 Ukrainian children kidnapped and removed to Russia must be returned to Ukraine and their families.
European countries (through the EU if possible, individually if not) should impose secondary sanctions on countries trading with Russia.
Troops from one or more countries from the Coalition of the Willing should be deployed in Western Ukraine at the earliest opportunity—even before any ceasefire or peace settlement.
The great weakness of the West has been that it has been so desperate for a ceasefire or peace settlement that it has been negotiating with itself—and publicly—over what provisions Putin might accept.
This is the wrong approach.
They need to set out the clear goal of victory, and let Putin worry about the terms they might accept. Their opening position might be as set forth above.
There is no quick fix to the Ukraine war or to the challenge of Russian aggression and barbarism.
The Europeans need to resign themselves to the possibility of a long conflict, build up their militaries and munitions production, and negotiate with Putin and Trump from a position of strength.
To be sure, as long as Trump or a like-minded Republican is president, they will have to temper their demands as necessary to ensure continued U.S. intelligence cooperation with Ukraine and the continued supply of air-defense systems and munitions.
The Europeans’ goal should not be to negotiate among themselves ceasefire or peace settlement terms that they think Putin (and Trump) might accept. They should set forth their goals unapologetically and loudly proclaim the overarching goal of victory.
They may be surprised by the responses of their peoples to such a clear articulation of objectives.
Our goal should be victory, not appeasement.
Martin Gilbert, Churchill: The Power of Words; His remarkable life recounted through his writings and speeches, 1st Hachettte ed. (New York: Hachette, 2020.) (Originally published by Da Capo Press, 2013) 223-225.
Gilbert, 242-243.
***
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harv Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books by the Author
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
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