Day 3, Phase 3
Absorbing Additional Assistance
America’s cheesy approach towards Ukraine was on full display on Tuesday during the public portion threats hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The metaphor is easy enough to grasp: Multiple layers of protection, imagined as cheese slices, block the spread of an unmitigated disaster. No one layer is perfect. Each has holes, and when the holes align, the risk of fubar increases. But several layers combined — independent media, rule of law, democratic elections, etc. — plus lots of violin music, plus education, plus street graffiti, plus culture, plus plenty of ibogaine, plus basic governing competence — significantly reduce the overall risk.
“One of the questions that comes up, frankly, is whether or not Ukraine can absorb additional assistance and how much of it. That’s very hard for us to tell. We have, in fact, more insight on the Russian side than on the Ukrainian side. But that’s something, obviously, for the Defense Department to wor…
