Original Article By “PlanetMoron” At NotTheBee.com:
Leave it to David Ignatius, The Washington Post’s foreign affairs columnist, to ask the question no one other than reliable servants to Washington’s enduring war uniparty would.
In case you suspect I’m overstating things, here is what he said, full context:
This ought to be the trump card for the United States. In World War II, the United States converted manufacturing plants across the country to make tanks, planes and aircraft carriers that simply overwhelmed Japan and Germany. No similar mobilization has taken place this time. Why not? Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has met several times with defense contractors, but why hasn’t President Biden appointed the equivalent of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s War Production Board?
Indeed, why hasn’t President Biden appointed the equivalent of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s War Production Board?!
Oh, wait, that’s right.
We’re not at war.
Not yet, anyway, although it’s not for want of trying on the part of people like Ignatius.
This bizarre question, which tells you perhaps more than you want to know about how Washington thinks, was part of a broader piece.
The leaked documents on the Ukraine war are chilling.
Chilling in for the Ukrainians, which at the moment are Washington’s real constituency.
Ignatius starts out by detailing the intrigue surrounding the release of the documents, was it Ukraine? Russia? Some other interested party? None of this is surprising from a columnist who has written 11 spy novels. In fact, you have to wonder if Ignatius understands that this isn’t fiction, that in real life there are real consequences beyond getting a bad review.
Ignatius’ full and unabashed support for war should also not be surprising given his reputation for being an apologist for the CIA.
Ignatius’s coverage of the CIA has been criticized as being defensive and overly positive. Melvin A. Goodman, a 42-year CIA veteran, Johns Hopkins professor, and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, has called Ignatius “the mainstream media’s apologist for the Central Intelligence Agency,” citing as examples Ignatius’s criticism of the Obama administration for investigating the CIA’s role in the use of torture in interrogations during the Iraq War and his charitable defense of the agency’s motivations for outsourcing such activities to private contractors. Columnist Glenn Greenwald has leveled similar criticism against Ignatius.
These are of course, outrageous lies!
Also, the CIA gave his first book, the one that launched his gig as a novelist, an approving nod.
Ignatius’s novels have also been praised for their realism; his first novel, Agents of Innocence, was at one point described by the CIA on its website as “a novel but not fiction.”
I did not know the CIA did book reviews.
In any case, Ignatius spends the rest of his column pointing out how much more help we need to provide.
First, Ukraine is facing a severe shortage of air defense weapons that could cost it the war. We knew it had a problem from last week’s announcement that the United States was rushing an additional $2.6 billion in air defense systems and other weapons.
What’s another $2.6 billion?
Second, the West’s “arsenal of democracy” isn’t close to matching Ukraine’s needs.
Isn’t close?
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the United States has sent more than $30 billion worth of gear to Ukraine. This is the 33rd time the Biden administration has invoked the drawdown authority for Ukraine.
That would be a draw down of the weapons systems and munitions we’ve stockpiled for our own defense needs.
Back to Ignatius:
But there’s a bad mismatch between Ukraine’s expenditure of missiles and ammunition and the West’s supplies. Partly that’s a result of the Ukrainians firing too much ammunition,…
Ever see how people behave at a wedding buffet where they aren’t bearing the cost of the food? Like that, only instead of the chilled shrimp being wiped out in 45 seconds, it’s the Patriot missile batteries.
It is at this point he decries the fact that we haven’t mobilized for war à la the Second World War as mentioned earlier.
This ought to be the trump card for the United States. In World War II, the United States converted manufacturing plants across the country to make tanks, planes and aircraft carriers that simply overwhelmed Japan and Germany. No similar mobilization has taken place this time. Why not? Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has met several times with defense contractors, but why hasn’t President Biden appointed the equivalent of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s War Production Board?
Yeah, let’s do that in support of a long-simmering territorial dispute in eastern Europe because we’ve kind of run out of problems here at home.
Hey, maybe we can make electric tanks, thus ushering in a new era of environmentally friendly human slaughter!
Another problem Ignatius identifies:
Biden is trying way too hard to stay out of World War III.
Third, the Biden administration has been more risk averse than some allies — and more than seems necessary….
The administration’s caution is sensible. But are Biden and Austin being too cautious?
Hey, YOLO, right?
Finally, journalists have been hearing privately for many months from top U.S. officials that they believe this conflict is at a deadly impasse, with heavy casualties depleting both sides…
But the Ukraine intelligence documents appear to be largely accurate, and they tell a chilling story.
Yes, they do.
Just not the one Ignatius thinks.
