Amateurs. Incompetent dabblers. Maybe feeling pretty smug, or possibly just trying to keep a stiff upper lip, project strength despite shaking in their boots, knowing that they’re operating in rarified air, loitering in places and situations that are too complicated and way out of their league.
Vance and Hegseth and the rest have their marching orders, though, all tucked under the umbrella of isolationism and America First and “saving democracy.” I’m surprised people still ascribe to such a time-tested failure.
A navel-gazing America, closing in on itself, is like an elephant trying to hide in a broom closet. We are in too deep all over the world to withdraw, to turn our backs, to shut down programs, to say, “You’re on your own.”
Mr. Lavrov is probably licking his chops over the opportunity to meet with Marco and company, while Mr. Zelenskyy wonders what has to happen to get heard, wonders where the salvation and real peace is going to come from if he can’t have a seat at the table.
The longer we go down this road of “flooding the zone” and absence of forethought, and cold-heartedness, and doing end runs around actual understanding and competence, the easier it becomes to draw conclusions about Trump and the whole lot of ass-kissers and out-of-touch rich kids: they don’t give a shit about real governance, or America. It’s not in their best interest, and it’s just too hard.
3 Cents' 