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Commentary
Of course, she might have just said it to get good press of the sort the initial NASAMS promise produced in January 2023, when Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy duly Tweet-thanked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “your true leadership in standing for democracy and human rights.” But it would be too silly for it to have been a brazen lie given how fast such lies disintegrate.
It’s far more likely that when Anand asked if it could be sent quickly, her senior public servants offered vague reassurances, to avoid contradicting the minister or involving her in complex, even contentious policy issues. But then the question becomes how could she have been satisfied with that response, and with not being on top of this file or what was happening in her department generally?
It’s how they roll. Their sublime conviction of their own excellence includes certainty that the facts must support them, so they say so and then rush to the next photo op.
It might sound silly. And it is. But do you really think Chrystia Freeland regards our fiscal situation as a mishandled mess, or the PM considers himself divisive? Or Anand knew before departing defence in July 2023, or her successor Bill Blair knew before reading it in last week’s newspapers, that the NASAMS had not shipped? If so, do you think he was pushing to get it done and knew what was holding it up? If not, why not?
We’re currently in a perilous international moment because we almost always are because our tyrannical enemies chronically regard us as weak-willed. Most grasp our capacities. But they doubt our resolve. Thus in 1941 Japan’s leaders knew the United States would win a sustained war but thought its people lacked the grit to wage one. And the price of failure to deter was high.
As on Ukraine, where Putin believed our endless signals of irresolution. And yes, I initially thought Russia would win quickly but still wanted to send as much Western help as was consistent with avoiding nuclear confrontation. Ukraine having bloodied the Russians to the point of apparently destroying their pre-war army leaving the Kremlin scraping the bottom of the recruiting barrel, sustaining aid becomes doubly urgent given the typical conclusions collapsing Western resolve would encourage, from North Korea to the PRC to Hamas and Hezbollah.
Instead our defence ministry openly operates in a fantasy land where words are deeds, wishes are horses, and questions are impertinent. We must understand why, in order to make it stop.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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