Stevenson’s army, February 24

Russia planned its war. US & NATO planned sanctions. Now we see how good the plans were. I am concerned about how well our banking and commercial systems can implement the tough sanctions — the EU list announced yesterday was over 600 pages long. And even removing Russia from SWIFT only forces them to use faxes. I also worry about accidents and miscalculations.

Here’s Putin’s delusional, mendacious war speech.

– David Sanger notes he even claimed Ukraine was seeking nuclear weapons.

– Al jazeera has a good timeline.

– Steve Walt worries about the imbalance of interests and capabilities.

Where is China? FP’s China Watch has a summary. And WaPo has news this morning.

Meanwhile, here’s a piece about  a longtime CIA official, a  friend of mine. And a New Yorker piece about the Taliban today.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I 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).