Stevenson’s army, May 6

– As you know, I believe in professionalism. So it’s important to study when the amateurs are empowered. Both the Post and the Times have stories today about how the “task force” led by Jared Kushner bungled its job of expediting supplies of medical equipment. The untrained volunteers gave priority to politically connected VIPs .
– VP Pence says the coronavirus task force that has been meeting in the White House will be disbanded. The new focus will be on reopening the country. It sounds like Sen. George Aiken’s [R-Vt] proposal for Vietnam: just declare victory and pull out.[Note that our “tremendous progress” now includes a death rate of one 9/11 every 30 hours — and that by June 1st one forecast says we will suffer one 9/11 every day.]
– Compare that with South Korea’s success story.
– BTW, CJR has a good piece on how to interpret health study stories.

– The president says the US government wasn’t involved, so that must be true. But look at the story of the ragtag force that tried to seize power in Venezuela.
– David Ignatius calls Huawei a paper tiger.
– SecDef Esper says the defense budget will come under attack. [I agree.]

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).