Stevenon’s army, June 15

As President Kennedy said, “To govern is to choose.” NYT has a good piece summarizing the conflicting views on whether to cut Trump tariffs on Chinese goods as part of the fight against inflation.

Ukraine assessments: David Ignatius emphasizes Russia’s problems. Fred Kaplan notes Russian progress.

While senior officials discuss what more to ship to Ukraine, Politico notes the practical logistical shipping and training issues that slow things down regardless.

Remember that the NDAA is not necessary for DOD to do its job. The only legal effect if there were no NDAA is that military pay couldn’t rise faster than the regular government COLA rules. Sure enough, NDAA committees are seeking to enact a huge military pay raise.

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).