quote: I asked my coworker who studied conflict resolution why he hadn't brokered a deal between Russia and Ukraine. He laughed, saying that's easy, but the US doesn't want peace

This quote from your article begs the question- what would a "brokered peace" look like?

Also, in this case it isn't "what the US wants"- what do Ukrainians want? I had a supplier last March stop shipping parts to us from the Czech Republic due to labor shortage- many of their Ukrainian workers left their safe Czech jobs to go back and fight- so either the Russian invasion is a real issue for them - or they are all just a bunch of suckers for the American war machine.

The repeated tropes that the US/Nato caused this war are getting stale and old and without basis.

This isn't to ignore our own behavior over time- we do have very little room to complain about Russia given our own actions especially our illegal invasion of Iraq - but an illegal action on our part doesn't give legitimacy to Putin's illegal war against Ukraine