Will the sidelining of Prigozhin — an extreme war hawk — give Putin room to negotiate? Hard to be optimistic since Putin cannot afford to show further weakness now. But we shall see.

Bottom line: diplomacy and combat will proceed simultaneously; one does not preclude the other. But the war will end only through diplomacy and it could still be a long and painful slog.

Isolationist voices in Congress and among likely GOP presidential candidates are a concern, but, as I said, leaders must make clear that this war is "forward defense," fight there so we never have to fight here and convince other adversaries we and our allies are no pushover.