Stevenson’s army, April 13

Appropriators plan June markups.

State has released its latest human rights report.

Eliot Cohen’s new column says US shouldn’t be self-deterred in aiding Ukraine:

Before Pearl Harbor, the American Volunteer Group, known as the Flying Tigers, was sent to China to fly P-40 fighters against the Japanese air force there. The group did so with the support of the U.S. government. Something similar can be done in Ukraine, if only there is the will to do it.

If the Soviet Union could deploy thousands of advisers to North Vietnam in the middle of the Vietnam War without triggering a nuclear conflict, the U.S. can deploy advisers to western Ukraine, or at least to Poland, to train Ukrainian soldiers. Instead, we ship Ukrainian troops to Biloxi, Mississippi, to learn how to operate the Switchblade drone, where their congratulations come from the Secretary of Defense on a Zoom call from his Pentagon desk. It would be better if he were draping his arm about their shoulders in some muddy field a lot closer to their homeland.

[I think those supposed precedents are far too risky. This is a different world with a different enemy.]

Recently I read Caroline Elkins’ history of the British empire, Legacy of Violence. The New Yorker has a review with both praise and criticism. As an Anglophile, I had a much more benign view of that empire [“rule of law,” democracy, etc.]. But now I’m persuaded that the Brits were pretty brutal.

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).