Five Failures in the Oval Office (video)
[transcribed]:
Today, the President and the Vice President met with the President of Ukraine, in the Oval Office. The American leaders committed five very fundamental errors:
1. Failure of Hospitality. This may seem old-fashioned, but I think it’s important. When someone travels to your house, you’re supposed to be hospitable to them. You’re supposed to be gentle, generous and providing. If someone is traveling to your house from a country in war, they might have had to travel by night train, because there were no planes or helicopters available. If it took them days to reach you because of all these difficulties, that’s all the more reason to be hospitable, and by yelling and interrupting, we were inhospitable today.
2. Failure of Decency. President Zelenskyy is coming from, and represents a country at war. 3 years ago, Russia invaded Ukraine. and since that time, has not ceased to commit various barbarisms, from bombing civilians, to torturing people in basements, to kidnapping children — this goes on and on and on. Every day. And this is a reality that the President of Ukraine, like all Ukrainians, have to face. One can have different opinions about how to bring this war to an end, and that’s normal. What’s not normal, what’s indecent, is to yell at a Ukrainian, including the President, about your opinion. To yell at them that they are wrong. When they have experienced things you have not. When they have seen things that you have not. When they’ve had to face choices that you haven’t had to face. That’s a failure of decency. And it’s related to the third failure:
3. Failure of Democracy. President Zelenskyy is coming from a democratic country. He was elected by a big majority, 73 percent. And he’s had to lead a country that expects him to represent them. And that means, when he sits in a place, or he stands in a place, whether it’s the White House or any other place, he has behind him, all the people, not just the ones who voted for him, but all the citizens. He can’t allow himself to be openly disrespected or belittled or bullied. I’m sure he doesn’t want to personally. But he’s also representing people, people who have to stand up for things, people who have had stood up for things. As a democratically elected president, he has to show a certain dignity. And again, I’m sure it’s a dignity he feels himself. But democracy brings with it some dignity. And if you are a democratic person you respect that. But the democratic failure has a second side. Most Americans understand that Russia invaded Ukraine. Most Americans understand that the war is Putin’s responsibility. Very few Americans believe that we should throw aside Ukraine and our other allies, and become an ally of Russia. And that is the fourth failure:
4. Failure of Strategy. What we witnessed today, all too clearly, was the beginnings of an American alliance with Russia. And this is something which is very hard to understand, in any kind of strategic calculation. The Russians specialize in sabotoging our infrastructure. They specialize in stealing our technological secrets. Those are the two main ways they engage with our economy. It’s hard to explain why we would throw over our other allies in order to make an alliance with Russia. Leaving aside the fact that we have 80 years of tradition ofgetting along with our current set of allies. Leaving aside the fact that there’s no particular reason why we could ever count on Russia, in any situation. There is simply no economic gain here. Canada’s economy is bigger than Russia’s, why would we throw over Canada for Russia? The European economie are 15 times at least as big as Russia’s. Why would we throw them over for Russia? Strategically it doesn’t make sense. Strategy is the fourth failure.
5. Failure of Independence. We Americans like to think of ourselves as independent. We like to believe that we think for ourselves. But in that inhospitable, indecent, undemocratic, unstrategic “fracas” that took place today in the Oval Office, there was a complete lack of independence on the American side. Everything that was said by American leaders has been said by Russians before. Every thought that was expressed has been expressed by Russians before. There was nothing that was said in that encounter which hadn’t been said by Russians before. I leave it to you for now to come to your own conclusions about why that is, but at a minimum, this expresses a lack of American independence.
These are the five failures, as I saw them, of the meeting of the Oval Office today.
WAYS TO HELP UKRAINE from TIMOTHY SNYDER:
If you are thinking today about how to help Ukrainians, here are some possibilities: Come Back Alive (Ukrainian NGO that supports soldiers on the battlefield and veterans), United 24 (the Ukrainian state platform for donations, with many excellent projects), RAZOM (an American NGO, tax-deductible for US citizens, which cooperates with Ukrainian NGOS to support civilians), and Documenting Ukraine (a project that helps to give Ukrainians a voice, also tax-deductible for Americans).
