The 36-page Egg
Adding sham gravitas by ladling on someone else’s unspeakable tragedy is a disgrace. That’s why I don’t know, exactly, what to make of Biden’s remarks during his State of the Union address.
“I spoke from this chamber one year ago, just days after Vladimir Putin unleashed his brutal war against Ukraine. A murderous assault, evoking images of the death and destruction Europe suffered in World War II,'' Biden said in his address to a Joint Session of the US Congress on Tuesday night.
''Putin's invasion has been a test for the ages. A test for America. A test for the world. Would we stand for the most basic of principles? Would we stand for sovereignty? Would we stand for the right of people to live free from tyranny? Would we stand for the defense of democracy?" Biden posed a series of questions.
''For such a defense matters to us because it keeps the peace and prevents open season for would-be aggressors to threaten our security and prosperity. One year later, we know the answer. Yes, we would. And yes, we did. Together, we did what America always does at our best," he said amidst applause from the Congressmen.
The United States, he said, united NATO and built a global coalition.
"We stood against Putin's aggression. We stood with the Ukrainian people," Biden said.
With all due respect, I do not think Team USA has done nearly enough, at least militarily, as fast as it could, if it wanted.
Meanwhile, policy makers in the land of Z appear more concerned with getting ahead of the news cycle than actually solving problems. That leaves us with a defense minister in limbo as the country braces for what The Financial Times reports is/will be “an imminent large-scale attack1.”
Practically no one takes Ben and Roman at the FT literally. We are more interested in Ukraine’s new sexologist ambassador to Bulgaria and the powerlifting concubine of the ex-governor of Dnipropetrovsk, but they are no longer making headlines.
For what should now be obvious reasons, America’s bureaucracy has been active, rolling out a Joint Strategic Oversight Plan, under which The OIGs from DoD, State, and USAID will conduct collaborative oversight under the framework for overseeing overseas contingency operations established under section 419, title 5, United States Code, to facilitate comprehensive oversight of complex interagency operations.
For more about what that means:
Which brings us back to the egg. It’s 36 pages long.
Ukraine prepares for renewed Russian offensive. Warnings multiply of Kremlin’s plans for imminent attack in eastern Donbas region (February 5, 2023)