Steven Beschloss/Substack:
We Can't Let the Bullies Win
From Russia and Ukraine to America, we can see the consequence of electing bullies and letting them act with impunity
Maybe you saw the video clip. In the scheme of things, it might seem like a minor event. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, had come to the University of South Florida to give a speech about cybersecurity education funding.
But before he spoke, he looked at the row of high school students spread out behind him and wearing masks. He didn’t say hi. He didn’t thank them for coming. “You do not have to wear those masks,” he said, obviously aggravated. “I mean, please take them off.” Jabbing his finger at them, he went on, “Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve got to stop with this Covid theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine. But this is—this is ridiculous.” Most of the students sheepishly took off their masks.
Then DeSantis turned around toward the podium with a huff, shook his head and began: “Alright, well, it’s good to be at USF.”
NY Times:
How the West Marshaled a Stunning Show of Unity Against Russia
In a few frantic days, the West threw out the playbook it used for decades against the Kremlin and isolated Russia with unparalleled sanctions and penalties.
The day after Russian tanks and troops poured across the Ukrainian border on Feb. 24, NATO leaders received a deeply frightening message. The alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, opened an emergency video summit by warning that President Vladimir V. Putin had “shattered peace in Europe” and that from now on, he would openly contest the continent’s security order.
However unlikely, Mr. Stoltenberg told the leaders, it was no longer unthinkable that Mr. Putin would attack a NATO member. Such a move would trigger the collective defense clause in the North Atlantic Treaty, opening the door to the ultimate nightmare scenario: a direct military conflict with Russia.
President Biden, who had dialed in from the White House Situation Room, spoke up swiftly. Article 5 was “sacrosanct,” he said, referring to the “one for all, all for one” principle that has anchored NATO since its founding after World War II. Mr. Biden urged allied leaders to step up and send reinforcements to Europe’s eastern flank, according to multiple officials briefed on the call.
Biden’s role in this is key.
Amy Zegart/Atlantic:
The Weapon the West Used Against Putin
The way in which the U.S. disclosed intelligence ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could drastically change geopolitics in the future.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine looks like a horrific Cold War throwback. Once again, a strongman rules in Moscow, Russian tanks are rolling across borders, and a democratic nation is fighting for its survival, street by street, day by day, armed with little more than Molotov cocktails and a fierce belief in freedom. For all the talk of emerging technologies and new threats, the violence in Ukraine feels raw and low-tech, and the world suddenly looks old again.
And yet, amid all these echoes of the past, Russia’s invasion has ushered in one development that is altogether new and could dramatically change geopolitics in the future: the real-time public disclosure of highly classified intelligence.
Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage/Foreign Affairs:
What If Russia Loses?
A Defeat for Moscow Won’t Be a Clear Victory for the West
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a strategic blunder by invading Ukraine. He has misjudged the political tenor of the country, which was not waiting to be liberated by Russian soldiers. He has misjudged the United States, the European Union, and a number of countries—including Australia, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea—all of which were capable of collective action before the war and all of which are now bent on Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. The United States and its allies and partners are imposing harsh costs on Moscow. Every war is a battle for public opinion, and Putin’s war in Ukraine has—in an age of mass-media imagery—associated Russia with an unprovoked attack on a peaceful neighbor, with mass humanitarian suffering, and with manifold war crimes. At every turn, the ensuing outrage will be an obstacle to Russian foreign policy in the future.
No less significant than Putin’s strategic error have been the Russian army’s tactical blunders. Bearing in mind the challenges of assessment in the early stages of a war, one can surely say that Russian planning and logistics were inadequate and that the lack of information given to soldiers and even to officers in the higher echelons was devastating to morale. The war was supposed to end quickly, with a lightning strike that would decapitate the Ukrainian government or cow it into surrender, after which Moscow would impose neutrality on Ukraine or establish a Russian suzerainty over the country. Minimal violence might have equaled minimal sanctions. Had the government fallen quickly, Putin could have claimed that he was right all along: because Ukraine had not been willing or able to defend itself, it was not a real country—just like he had said.
But Putin will be unable to win this war on his preferred terms. Indeed, there are several ways in which he could ultimately lose.
Politico:
Judge rejects Eastman effort to slow down Jan. 6 committee
"Dr. Eastman’s liberty is not at issue—only his emails," Judge David Carter rules.
A federal judge has rejected an attempt by attorney John Eastman — the architect of Donald Trump’s legal strategy to overturn the 2020 election — to slow down the Jan. 6 select committee’s push to obtain documents they say could show the former president criminally conspired with Eastman to subvert the democratic process.
In a late Friday order, Judge David Carter said Eastman’s demand to postpone a March 8 hearing and force the select committee to provide him “exculpatory” evidence was unwarranted and legally misguided .
Thomas Zimmer/ Guardian:
America’s culture war is spilling into actual war-war
America is divided. That’s not news. But the authoritarian ruler in the Kremlin deciding to invade a democratic neighbor – that’s the type of international crisis that traditionally might have inspired some closing of the ranks: set differences aside, let domestic quarrels rest. But conservatives are evidently out on the idea of patriotic unity. The right’s reactions to Russia’s attack on Ukraine have ranged from blatant admiration for Putin to anti-Russian saber-rattling combined with a shrill critique of President Joe Biden. Donald Trump initially called the invasion “genius”; he then defended his position at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend, adding that Nato was “not so smart” and “our leaders are dumb.” Meanwhile, America’s most successful cable news host Tucker Carlson ridiculed American solidarity with Ukraine, a country he derided as “a tyranny”, led by “the people who paid off Joe Biden’s family”.
WaPo:
Pence says there’s no room in the GOP for ‘apologists for Putin’ in veiled swipe at Trump
While Pence did not explicitly refer to the former president by name, Trump has been among the loudest, and only, Republican voices supporting Putin. Trump recently described Putin as “smart,” “savvy” and “a genius,” while insisting the attack on Ukraine never would have happened on his watch.
“The problem is not that Putin is smart — which of course he’s smart,” Trump said last week, “but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb. Dumb. So dumb.”