It’s reasonable to be disappointed or worried — even disgusted — by the outcome of Donald Trump’s phone call with Vladimir Putin this week but not surprised. The US president didn’t fail to end this war, because he never tried.

His focus was from day one to achieve a reset with Russia that would deliver an economic bounty to the US. American participation in the war was an obstacle to be removed before that could happen, and doing so via a peace settlement — rather than........

© Bloomberg