Wartime conscription is hardly the same as full authoritarianism, and taking measures to protect the state that gave him the mandate is far from treating its people like shit.

There is a grim necessity for authoritarian measures to war. A commander will need to be able to make war decisions without having to wait for some assembly to approve them. A commander will need people to contribute to the war effort. There’s a reason authoritarian factions like military coups and staging wars: It’s far easier to justify such measures while you’re actively at war.

But that implication doesn’t work the other way. Zelenskyy didn’t start this war. He isn’t persecuting an offensive war for his own ends. He is doing what he must to protect the territory, population and independence of his country. That involves forcing people to participate in the war for the good of all others.

Is it pretty? No. But neither is running out of troops and having your country taken over by someone who is demonstrably authoritarian even outside of matters of war. I wouldn’t want to be conscripted either, but I accept the necessity.

pound the pavement

Gonna be hard around here. They recently fixed all the cracks.

With this single “conversation” they undermined every security deal they had anywhere in the world.

I disagree. If it was a single conversation the world would be shocked but they could still cover it up. Politicians say dumb shit and walk it back all the time.

It’s the fact that his first term was already such a blundering mess in terms of diplomacy, combined with the fact that he somehow got re-elected, the accelerating bullshit ever since and now finally this mess. If they hadn’t been chipping away at any international goodwill so thoroughly, the response would be closer to “I can’t believe a US president would say that” rather than “the US as a whole is no longer reliable”.

We’re about to see how the next elections turn out. Maybe all is not lost yet.

That would risk direct conflict between nuclear powers. I’m not sure that’s a gamble we should take.

I’m not sure we shouldn’t take it either. I don’t know, really. But it’s scary.