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Noam Chomsky has no truck with those who would explain away the brutality of the war in Ukraine, but he does warn that there only two outcomes of the seven-week conflict.
"One possibility is to move on to facilitate the destruction of Ukraine and possibly a nuclear war," Prof Chomsky told The National. "That's one possibility.
"So when you read a headline in a main journal in the United States calling for Russia delenda est (we must destroy Russia), what that is saying is I want to kill everybody in Ukraine and I want to move on to a nuclear war which will end human life on Earth.
"The other possibility is to abandon that stance to move in the direction that [French President] Emmanuel Macron was moving towards in his abortive discussions with [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin."
The phrase "Russia delenda est" is an echo of Cato the Elder's formula that declared Carthage must be destroyed to stop the enemies of Rome and was indeed published in recent weeks in Washington publications.
It is not an irony that it was updated by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy in 1899, in a famous attack on militarism and promotion of pacifism by the writer of the epic War and Peace.
For Prof Chomsky, 93, whose father was born in what is now Ukraine (his mother was born in what is now Belarus), the obvious path forward has been well promoted as an alternative to the Cold War settlement for more than 15 years.
To give Mr Putin the kind of security landscape he seeks for Russia avoids a bleak escalatory pathway with a country that has an enormous nuclear arsenal.
"Now that kind of settlement will be ugly," he said. "That's a fact. It will have to offer President Putin some kind of escape hatch.
"If it doesn't offer an escape hatch then, when the hard men in Moscow have their backs to the wall and are told there's nothing left for you, the only choice for them is to use all their power.
"So the settlement will have to have an escape hatch. And everyone knows pretty much what it is.
"It will have to be a settlement that agrees on the neutralisation of Ukraine and some diplomatic finesse to put aside for the time being the status of Donbas and Crimea to be negotiated at a later stage, and a ceasefire and withdrawal of troops.
"That's basically the framework and it's understood out of all sides."
For one with an enormous following in radical leftist politics, Prof Chomsky evinces great respect for diplomatic expertise.
One scenario is that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could reach a ceasefire with the Kremlin but Washington would effectively scupper it by refusing to unwind sanctions.
Prof Chomsky has been critical of US President Joe Biden's moral outrage over Ukraine but indifference elsewhere, notably with regards to Afghanistan.
"Washington's position now is to fight to the last Ukrainian," he said. "Not my words, I'm quoting one of the most astute and respected members of the diplomatic service, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman.
"He has described in some detail US strategy, and in his words, it's fight to the last Ukraine but don't have a negotiated settlement. Don't offer a way out — that's US policy."
He regards Mr Biden's decision last September to issue a statement on a Strategic Defence Framework for Ukraine, offering advanced weapons, joint exercises and increased training for the Kyiv military, as a potential trigger.
"It could be that this was what finally induced Russia to make the dangerous, criminal decision to go to direct invasion," he said.
Prof Chomsky's analysis renders much of western analysis of how the war has unfolded as being besides the point.
The strategy experts agree that drastic escalation or a scaled-back campaign focused on the south and east are Mr Putin's immediate choices.
The wider findings that Russia crucially underestimated Ukraine's will to resist, misread unity among western countries and even that it now faces disquiet among the sanctioned Russian elite should be set aside.
The paramount factor for Prof Chomsky is the 30-year unravelling of the post Cold War entente.
"There was a great opportunity at the end of the Cold War and President Bush, first President [George] HW Bush, actually pursued it," he says.
"Mikhail Gorbachev had presented a vision of a post Cold War Europe. It would be a unified Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok with no military alliances — what was called common European home.
"President Bush's option was not that different, it was called the 'Partnership for Peace'. The Partnership for Peace didn't exclude Nato but it had a limited relationship to it. So countries could join the Partnership for Peace without a connection to Nato.
"Tajikistan, for example, joined — no Nato connection — and it could have been extended to include Russia in a general partnership for peace in which military alliances would erode and maybe disappear."
The turning point was the policy path pursued by Bill Clinton, who replaced the Republican in 1993. Prof Chomsky sees Mr Clinton as playing both sides by signalling partnership with Moscow, but preparing ground for an expansion of the North Atlantic alliance to the Russia border from the mid-1990s.
"To the Russians he said 'Partnership for Peace'," he said. "To the world he said we're going to expand Nato to the Russian border. He was bitterly condemned by Boris Yeltsin.
"This was in strict violation of a promise, firm commitment, that President Bush had made to Gorbachev that Nato would not extend one inch to the east, meaning to the east of East Germany, and Bush lived up to that."
Worse was to come when George W Bush sought untrammelled Nato growth after the September 11 attacks and the campaign in Afghanistan.
"When George W Bush came in, the second Bush, he threw it open to the wind, invited in a series of other former Russian satellites right to the Russian border," Prof Chomsky said.
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Women, wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, embrace during a flash mob protesting sexual abuse by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, at Washington Square Park in New York. AFP -
The train station, seen from a train car, after a rocket attack in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. A rocket attack on the station in the eastern Ukrainian city killed 52 people as civilians raced to flee the Donbas region bracing for a feared Russian offensive. AFP -
Antonina Kaletnyk waits for the body of her son in front of a collapsed building in the town of Borodianka, north-west of Kyiv. AFP -
A vehicle drives past a hole on a damaged bridge, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AFP -
A segment of a large rocket with the words "for our children" in Russian is pictured next to the main building of the train station in Kramatorsk. EPA -
Antonina Kaletnyk waits for the body of her son in front of a collapsed building in the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv. AFP -
A woman waves goodbye to her husband as she leaves on a bus, a day after the rocket attack at a train station in Kramatorsk. AFP -
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and EU foreign affairs envoy Josep Borrell during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. EPA -
European Commission President Ursula and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a news conference in Kyiv. Reuters -
Ms von der Leyen shakes hands with President Zelenskyy as Mr Borrell looks on during their meeting in Kyiv. EPA -
Ms von der Leyen and Mr Borrell before their meeting with President Zelenskyy in Kyiv. EPA -
Ms von der Leyen, Mr Borrell and Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal visit the town of Bucha, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine. Reuters -
Smoke rises after Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk, in the Donbas region of Ukraine. AP -
Burnt vehicles are seen in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk. AFP -
Policemen at the scene in Kramatorsk. AFP -
The remnants of a rocket after the deadly strike in Kramatorsk. AFP -
Survivors of the attack sit on a bench outside the station. AFP -
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen departs for Kyiv in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
A man wheels his bicycle past a destroyed tank in Chernihiv. AP -
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Barcelona Mayoress Ada Colau visit the refugee centre set up at Fira de Barcelona for the care, temporary reception and referral of Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war. EPA -
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin follows the address of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via video link at the Finnish Parliament in Helsinki. AFP -
A young refugee from Ukraine and a dog wait in the ticket hall of the railwlay station in Przemysl, eastern Poland, which has become a hub for refugees from Ukraine fleeing their country due to Russia's aggression. AFP -
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanks MPs after his virtual address to the Greek Parliament in Athens. AFP -
Firefighters take a rest after working at the site of buildings that were destroyed by shelling, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Borodyanka, in the Kyiv region, Ukraine. Reuters -
Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, poses for a picture during an interview with The Associated Press during an interview in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
Ukrainian soldiers Anastasia and Vyacheslav embrace prior to their wedding ceremony in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
Yurii, 41, who serves in the Ukrainian military, grabs a wedding photograph from his apartment in Hostomel, Ukraine. Getty Images -
A damaged car is seen next to a heavily damaged apartment building in Hostomel, Ukraine. Getty Images -
Burnt cars are seen next to a field in Hostomel, Ukraine. Getty Images -
Svitlana, 62, shows a heavily damaged house in the residential area, in Hostomel, Ukraine. Getty Images -
Ukrainians, who fled to Mexico amid the Russian invasion of their homeland, enjoy the performance of a mariachi band at the Benito Juarez sports complex, set up as a shelter by the local government, after arriving in Tijuana to enter the U. S. , in Tijuana, Mexico. Reuters -
A Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle bound for Ukraine waits to be loaded onto a C-17A Globemaster III aircraft at RAAF Base Amberley, Australia. AP -
Residents and volunteers cross the destroyed bridge to the city with supplies in Irpin, Ukraine. Getty Images -
A Ukrainian serviceman attends a training session in Kharkiv outskirts, Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian serviceman walks on a destroyed Russian fighting vehicle in Bucha, Ukraine. AP -
Screens show results from voting by the UN General Assembly in New York as member countries pass a resolution to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. EPA -
The shell of a theatre destroyed in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
A woman lights candles during a demonstration to support Ukraine in downtown Sofia. AFP -
Territorial Defence fighters are trained near Kharkiv. EPA -
Rescuers work among remains of residential building destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Kyiv region. Reuters -
Smoke rises over the town of Rubizhne, in the Donbas region. AFP -
Ukrainian soldiers sit on an armoured military vehicle in the city of Severodonetsk, Donbass region. AFP -
Painted pictures showing Ukrainian cities hang on a wall at "Cafe Ukraine" in Berlin, Germany. Getty -
A Ukrainian refugee's dog arrives on a train from Odesa at Przemysl Glowny train station in Poland. Reuters
"Every American diplomat — George Kennan, Henry Kissinger, heads of the CIA — all of them understood very clearly that Georgia and Ukraine are red lines. The Russians will tolerate a lot but not the entry of a hostile military alliance into their geostrategic heartland."
From the great unravelling to the outbreak of conflict in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2014, when Russia secured enclaves of Russian speakers in both countries, the deterioration in understanding with Moscow has been slow but inexorable.
What Prof Chomsky now fears is a literal endgame for all organised humanity.
"One possibility is to move on to facilitate the destruction of Ukraine and possibly a nuclear war," he said.
"It also means strong possibility of moving on to confrontation between major nuclear powers, which is essentially the end."
