Day 933
Satisfice or optimize?
He is not just an ex-comic fighting for freedom. He is a world leader doing a job that matters to him. Part of that job means making shit up from time to time.
The slide to fanaticism became obvious in 2020 with the big lie about Operation Avenue1. It marked our return to the place when “truth” became whatever the President’s Office said it was, when facts and evidence were covered up, making it impossible to have a democratic debate about anything.
This brings me directly to Rebecca, who in 2021 directed the Russia-Ukraine Tiger Team contingency planning process for Team USA’s National Security Council. She, of course, acquainted herself with the scuppered op, Z’s confusion about subjectiveness and sovereignty, his vacation in Oman and other peacemaking calamaties, including potent managers, planned coups, Kadyrovite assassins, one million drones, 1GW of electricity, UAH 17 eggs for the chow hall, fall-back defensive fortifications, revisions to the law on forced conscription, et cetera2.
The Grand Strategist Who Has Kamala’s Ear, a straight-arrow, traditional foreign policy wonk, knows what a baldface lie is. This might improve or, er, damage future US-Ukraine relations3. No one knows
What we do know is that if Z had heeded the advice of our former commander-in-chief a year ago we would have been better prepared for the catastrophe we face today. Trust has a strong link to political legitimacy, and policymakers in the West are less inclined to believe endless bullshit emanating from Kyiv.
On military matters, it might be better for Z to talk less and be thought a fool than to open his mouth and remove all doubt.
Setting the Plate Clear. Subjectivizing Ukraine (September 6, 2021)
The Grand Strategist Who Has Kamala’s Ear. Rebecca Lissner doesn’t want the United States to remake the world, but to keep it open (Foreign Policy, August 29, 2024)