Today’s award for comedy writing goes to Walter Russell Mead for this passage from his most recent Wall Street Journal column:
President Biden must use the shock and horror of Russian aggression in Ukraine to build an allied and domestic consensus for a reinvigorated foreign policy. Many of the strategies come from Ronald Reagan’s playbook. We can massively outspend Russia on defense and cyber capabilities. We can marginalize Russia diplomatically while attacking its oil income and limiting its access to technology. We must solidify our alliances while degrading Russian influence everywhere from Syria and Libya to Venezuela, Cuba and beyond.
Mr. Putin is a gifted leader, and we must expect more surprises. But even with the addition of Ukraine, Russia is weaker than the Soviet Union was. If the American response is purposeful, creative and wise, Mr. Putin’s campaign against the world order will ultimately fail.
While I sympathize with his first paragraph, the highlighted passage is the one to which I refer.
What is it about American foreign policy over the period of the last 60 years that convinces Dr. Mead that we are still capable of being “purposeful, creative and wise”?
Less argumentatively, other than the measures in the first paragraph quoted, what does Dr. Mead see as the purposeful, creative and wise course? And is it politically possible for President Biden?
“And is it politically possible for President Biden?”
He already blew it with his pandering to the left energy policy. Boneheaded.
And todays comedy award for administration of covid treatment:
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday said younger males should consider waiting longer between doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in order to reduce the risk of a rare form of heart inflammation.
In an update on its website, the agency suggested an eight-week interval between the first and second doses of a primary mRNA vaccine schedule.”
“The “mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at the FDA-approved or FDA-authorized intervals, but a longer interval may be considered for some populations. While absolute risk remains small, the relative risk for myocarditis is higher for males ages 12-39 years, and this risk might be reduced by extending the interval between the first and second dose,” the agency said.”
Heh. Last week this would have gotten one labeled as a conspiracy theorist and de-platformed.