THE SITUATION – OVERNIGHT:  All eyes on Ukraine.  No need to give you a blow-by-blow.  Urgent Agenda readers are well informed, and you know what's happened.   You're watching the same networks I am.

And so, first, a word about news coverage.  Ukraine may turn out to be the largest military clash in Europe since World War II.  It requires the best journalism.  I'm pleased to report that the TV journalism I'm seeing is awfully good.  I'm especially pleased to report that CNN, which has suffered under the now-dismissed Jeff Zucker, has performed ably.  Solid reporting, calmness in presentation, a good body of knowledge, and very few words about Donald Trump.  Maybe Zucker's departure has had a liberating effect. 

We've been tough on CNN here, but we always give credit where it's due.  I hope we continue to see in the future  the CNN we've seen in the last 24 hours.

Putin's invasion of Ukraine reminds us of a lesson we have to relearn over and over – that not everyone in the world thinks the way we do.  In World War II, many American naval officers could not understand the Japanese kamikaze – pilots trained to commit suicide as they crashed their planes into American warships.  Even Admiral Ernest King, the chief of naval operations, threw up his hands in bafflement.  No commander would send a pilot to commit suicide.

Well, the Japanese begged to disagree.  And now, today, we have a situation where we find it hard to understand a seemingly irrational act by the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.  He delivered a message a few days ago that was right out of 19th-century international politics – that Russia, a great nation sold out during the Cold War, must be recognized for its greatness again, and that meant rebuilding the Soviet empire.  Was he serious?  I mean, ain't that stuff old-fashioned?  Yes, but not to Putin.  He feels no need to see the world in modern terms.  He hasn't "moved on," to use that tired cliché of the American left.  I would not be shocked, after he gobbles up Ukraine, and perhaps another country, to see him change Russia's name to something more grand.  During the Cold War it was called the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  I would expect to see something equally pompous.  To Putin, it would be final justice, and he would absorb the glory.  Hail Vlad, king of the empire.

Inevitably, as the fighting increases, commentators will get to the question of blame.  How did this happen?  How did we allow it to happen?  Putin, for some reason, believed that the United States was so weak that he could strike in Europe without fear of being defeated. 

The discussion of blame is proper...if it is allowed to be honest.  But if certain names are off limits because of political correctness, the discussion is useless, even dangerous.   Thus, we must insist that the role of President Barack Obama be thoroughly examined.  It was he who invited the Russians back into the Middle East.  It was he who allowed Putin to take Crimea.  It was he who ridiculed the notion that Russia was a major threat.  It was he who gave us Hillary Clinton and John Kerry as secretaries of state.  Decisions have consequences.

We continue to monitor.  Check back here later today.

February 24, 2022