Ukraine
February 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Here’s an interesting Twitter thread from someone named Riho Terras, a member of the European Parliament, posted a few hours ago. Obviously we’re not in any position to vouch for the accuracy of this thread (and some of it seems dubious), but pass it along in the interest of broad coverage: THREAD 1/7 Intel from a Ukrainian officer about a meeting in Putin’s lair in Urals. Oligarchs convened there so
»
February 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I don’t think there is a better place to follow breaking news than Twitter. I can’t vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the videos, but these six tweets show up on my feed directly or indirectly via sources I have chosen to follow. Marc Thiessen and Michael Doran are of interest, as always. Each of the four following theirs is worth a look. UDPATE: The AP has just posted
»
February 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Almost-president and former Obama administration Secretary of State John Kerry remains in the employ of the United States as a special envoy of the Biden administration. How special can you get? MEMRI tweeted out the video below in which Kerry applies his perspective to Russia’s rape of Ukraine earlier this week. The New York Post devotes an editorial to Kerry’s deep thoughts and Daniel Turner piles on here. They administer
»
February 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
It may be charitable to infer that President Biden and the officials running the show in his administration don’t have a clue. The question is implicit in Edward Wong’s February 25 New York Times story “U.S. Officials Repeatedly Urged China to Help Avert War in Ukraine.” Subhead: “Americans presented Chinese officials with intelligence on Russia’s troop buildup in hopes that President Xi Jinping would step in, but were repeatedly rebuffed.”
»
February 25, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Do presidents matter? Why, yes, they do. War has broken out in Europe, but Joe Biden is too weary–or something–to deal with it: Joe Biden is now scheduled to LEAVE the White House TODAY at 5:30pm to spend the weekend in DELAWARE. War is brewing in Europe but Brandon has to take his naps and have his warm apple sauce away from every advisor possible. — Benny (@bennyjohnson) February 25,
»
February 25, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Things don’t seem to be going as smoothly for the Russian army as Putin had anticipated. This article in the London Times sums up the situation on the ground and is consistent with other accounts I have seen: Pentagon officials said that Russian forces had lost momentum and were not advancing as quickly as their intelligence estimates had predicted. “They are not moving on Kyiv as fast as they anticipated
»
February 25, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Russian sanctions that President Biden announced at his press conference yesterday (White House transcript here) are a joke. Weren’t sanctions intended to deter Putin’s invasion of Ukraine? Why, yes, they were. Isn’t it a bit late to deter the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Why, yes, it is. So Biden prevaricated: “[N]o one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening. That has to sh- — this is going to
»
February 25, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I don’t have any deep thoughts on Vladimir Putin’s old-fashioned rape of Ukraine. I set out my (obvious and superficial) thoughts yesterday morning in “Russia invades Ukraine.” There I observed that Ukraine’s President Zelensky must be a brave man. He appears also to be a serious man and patriot. I wish we could swap him out for our own shell of a president or airhead of a vice president. Below
»
February 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I guessed wrong on this one. I thought Putin would bluff and bluster, and then cash in his chips. I thought the weak Western powers would agree to a partition of Ukraine, with the largely Russian-speaking Eastern provinces going to Russia, along with other considerations, unrelated to Ukraine, that would be more or less secret. But Putin invaded instead, and seems bent on conquering all of Ukraine and perhaps more
»
February 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
A little while ago, Joe Biden delivered a statement on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and then took some questions from reporters. Altogether the appearance lasted 24 minutes; it is embedded below. Here are some observations: * As usual, Biden read haltingly from a teleprompter. He was even weaker when trying to respond to questions. And his frequent and inappropriate grins were disconcerting. It is hard to escape the assumption that
»
February 24, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The news this morning tells us that Vladimir Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and demanded Ukraine’s army give it up. Speaking on state television early this morning, Putin claimed that Russia was not planning to occupy Ukraine but vowed to punish those who stood in their way. “The goal is to defend people who have been victims of abuse and genocide from the Kyiv regime. And we
»
February 23, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Scott noted here that it has taken over 80 years, but Hollywood finally got round to exonerating Neville Chamberlain for his malfeasance in Munich in 1938. Today’s media isn’t even waiting 80 hours to exonerate President Biden. They are already declaring this to be Biden’s finest hour. Behold the Washington Post just three days ago: With or without war, Ukraine gives Biden a new lease on leadership Six months ago,
»
February 22, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Earlier today I credited Alexander Vindman with the hottest take on Ukraine. Vindman blamed Russia’s aggression on conservative pundits in the United States. Because we have so much influence on the Biden administration, apparently. But yesterday my old law professor Larry Tribe went Vindman one better with this bizarre tweet. Which, by the way, was published at 4:09 a.m., not generally seen as a time for clear, sober thinking: Tribe
»
February 22, 2022 — John Hinderaker
…belongs to Alexander Vindman. He is the former National Security Council staffer who played a role in the first Trump impeachment charade, and since then has made a modest television career bashing Republicans. Think of him as the Michael Avenatti of the national security establishment. Yesterday, as a guest on the Rachel Maddow show, Vindman tried to blame Russia’s Ukraine incursion on conservative pundits in the U.S.: Guest host Ali
»
February 22, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Francis Fukuyama, history calling on line 1. Looks like History didn’t get the memo. And it also looks like Tom Friedman’s famous McDonald’s theorem in The Lexus and the Olive Tree (no two countries that have McDonald’s go to war with each other) is finally ready for the dustbin of you-know-what. At least the UN Security Council is on the job this morning. I see the rotating chair of the
»
February 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Let us pause once more over the appearance of Vice President Kamala Harris at the Munich Security Conference this pasts weekend. Her prepared remarks at the conference over the weekend weren’t enough. She felt compelled to speak extemporaneously in a question and answer session that went on for 16 minutes on her way out the door yesterday. It may be somewhat unfair to highlight one quotable quote that displays her
»
February 21, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Joe Biden has dispatched Kamala Harris to deal with the Ukraine crisis. This is somewhat like sending a kid with a squirt gun to try to extinguish a burning building, only perhaps more futile. Here Kamala dispenses her wisdom banality on the Ukraine situation while wearing a ridiculous face mask. You may have noticed that Vladimir Putin did not wear a mask while announcing his virtual annexation of part of
»
