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It’s hard to win these days. Not only do we have worries about war, we’ve got worries over worries about war. Is the Biden administration’s foreign policy dangerously cautious? That’s what Peter and James discuss – and argue about – with our guest, AEI’s Kori Schake.
The hosts (minus Rob, who was off podcasting elsewhere…) also chat about Italy’s Giorgia Meloni; James gets peeved, and it’a lots of fun; they do some speculating of their own about the bubbles in the Baltic; and Peter recalls the time he had dinner with a mega-celeb and had no idea who said mega-celeb was.
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Rob missed the Flagship for The Three Martini lunch?
You’re going to want to listen to this show. Here’s a preview:
Great call-out, EJ. I just hit the word “malleable” at a buck-forty, and I’m ready to comment negatively about this person. Ahem.
EDIT. Just finished. I echo @jon’s praise of Lileks’ combustible
rantmonologue after the interview. She had to leave early, but there was MUCH more to say — perhaps she can come back Real Soon.Speaking as a former boot on the ground (in my limited office-job-in-a-combat-zone role) who lost friends there, let me set this lady straight on her question about “Who doesn’t want to put boots on ground?”
I don’t. I am rah-frikkin-rah for the Ukrainians, and I hope Putin falls out a window. But I certainly do not trust this government — especially under the Biden gang — to do anything right when it comes to the command of troops. Not going in, not being there, not winning, and certainly not getting out.
Russia is not the only country in which a mobilization will be met with unrest.
HELL NO.
How dare (sorry, there it is) anybody suggest that troops be entrusted to this administration?
That’s about all the civility I can muster for this.
@3:05 YES! “Malleable” = chills, and for just that reason.
My previous comments are keyed to the five-minute clip. Anything forward will be keyed to the full-length podcast.
I will admit that I seethed during most of the interview. James was “en fuego” but a lot more composed than I would have been. (There’s a reason they keep me on the backside of these things.)
The idea that anyone with influence in policy circles openly talked about manipulating the American people into what could be a civilization-ending conflict and they were going to do it by insinuating that either you’re all in or you’re not… well, I still have no way to express myself in a civil manner.
I have now had two sons who have raised their right hands and pledged to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” not the sanctity of some other country’s borders or their national interests. And when she asks James, “Who says they don’t want the US or NATO to get involved?” she might as well have said, “Who the F do you peons and your cannon fodder children think you are?” The arrogance! Can I lock her in a room with some Marine Corps moms?
During a good discussion of Euro-drama and Meloni etc (paraphrased “Meloni is not a threat to democracy — Meloni is democracy”), Lileks states that the US is different from the monoculture European nations by dint of our melting pot. I think that’s off by a quarter-turn. The melting pot model made us national albeit in an extended fashion, and the newer (but increasingly aptly named) fruit-salad model (multi-culture = anti-culture) has Balkanized us. This was no accident, of course.
I haven’t listened yet, to comment on the guest, but can relate to this one. My dad worked at the local gas company for the second-generation owner. The owner’s dad had started with a local station and grown it to cover a wide area. They were affiliated with Conoco and were big enough that he was invited to some big corporate event. He came back and told my dad and the others how he ended up at one of the front tables and everyone kept coming up for his neighbor’s autograph but he didn’t know who it was. That’s how my dad’s boss had dinner with Conoco spokesman Terry Bradshaw.
Malleable is the same as persuadable. This is why we get false stories about nuclear weapons, gas attacks, and babies in incubators. Americans are pretty quick to expend the lives and mothers of others. If Ukraine had to raise funds from a GoFundMe they would probably not be able to raise $20 million.
The only question before I press play is how high I want my blood pressure to go with my pizza dinner?
International communism thrives in the atomization of humans. They must be isolated, cut off from one another for it to thrive. No family, no connection to others, only to the state. The isolation makes us easier to control.
The gender identity stuff is breaking our connections to self. If we are not connected to self, we can’t connect to others.
Its just more of the “you will have nothing and be happy”.
Members-only poll to answer the woman’s question: https://ricochet.com/1319486/ricochet-poll-of-us-citizen-members-ukraine-boots-on-ground/
Cautious!?
Is getting us into World War III the “cautious approach”?
Yeah, I’m there, too. But then I realized she’s an AEI neocon.
Been there all year, and I keep getting called “Putin-lover” for it.
The idea that they will use propaganda to garner support for the war is a bit naïve. It’s not something they will use. It’s something they have been using all along.
Of course, and not just for this. You just don’t hear it stated so baldly most of the time. With such banality.
I rather liked If you don’t support American boots on the ground, then you don’t actually support Ukraine.
Thank you for making that clear, neocon warmonger from open-borders think tank AEI. I knew I didn’t like you, and you’ve helped me solidify that.
She did repeat
Robinson’sLileks’ final phrase”… down the line,” and said that you then only support Ukraine “partway down the line,” but the gleam in her eye was so disgusting that I think it was apparent — she meant what you said.I tell you, video is important. Body language matters. “Duper’s delight” is real and leaves a mark when you know to look for it.
“Down the line” was me, not Peter.
It sounds like a compromise peace was possible last April and various western countries scuttled it. The side effects of this war are terrible. Widespread starvation is a possibility in poorer countries and Europe faces a cold dark winter. The blasé attitude of this woman is disgusting.
Well, she’s not planning to suffer. I’m sure she’s got the means to escape from the suffering she’ll happily visit on everyone else. Nice little hide-away in Tahiti, perhaps?
Thank you, sir. Corrected.
If this is who supposedly “conservative” think tank AEI is hiring these days, color me unimpressed. And uninfluenced.
We don’t finish off wars constructively. Let’s take a break.
Well done, @jameslileks. I was stunned at her cavalier attitude, both to the use of nukes and to sending other people’s children to a war that doesn’t involve us. Seemed like she was phoning in from 2002.
Amazing 5-minute filibuster from 31:40.
I guess that’s an Aria.
I also disagree with her prescription that “the more clear we make the consequences, the less likely” wrt Russian nukes. We should be vague and ready, not committed. All that does is tie our own hands. As if Putin were stupid and somehow unaware that the most powerful country on the planet prefers he not nuke Ukraine. Or anywhere else, for that matter. If we promise/threaten specific responses, that gives Putin a roadmap to manipulate us. It’s breathtaking.
She’s living in some academic bubble, all logic and contracts. That’s not how this works at all. She sounds 100% State Department (I do recall her bio from the intro).
Here’s how legalistic her understanding is:
She thinks that sending “only” specialized US nuclear fallout cleanup units into Ukraine would meet Lileks’ bar of “no US troops fighting Russian troops”. Not hardly! Ukraine is a war zone. If we put US troops in on one side, then they are fair game for the other side.
Both this cockamamie decon unit thing and the “specific consequences” thing are perfectly designed to draw us into a shooting war with Russia.
I don’t think she’s stupid. That leaves only less pleasant options.
Maybe she’s one of those stupid-smart people, or however they are described.
Math is a harsh mistress.
Meloni can do whatever she wants – or at least whatever she can achieve – regarding immigration to Italy, and the rest of Europe can do the same for their respective countries. But as long as they aren’t having enough children to replace themselves, eventually they decline to a point where Al Queda or whoever could just walk in and take over.
This is something that Mark Steyn addressed in his book “America Alone,” and in The Best Interview Ever.
Refreshed:
https://www.adrive.com/public/RaM8Mj/NARN%2012-02-06%20NARN%201%20Hour%202%20Mark%20Steyn.mp3