April 7, 2025

DON’T FORGET WHAT THEY DID TO US:

Posted at 8:38 am by Glenn Reynolds 12

MARK JUDGE: Jonathan Capehart’s WaPo Hissy Fit. “Sounds pretty bad. Yet as one delves into the details of why Capehart walked, it’s Capehart himself who looks pretty bad. Imperious, while at the same time hyper-sensitive; self-righteous while morally confused; resentful while equally obtuse; ideologically brainwashed and thus incapable of independent thought, Jonathan Capehart is everything wrong with journalism in 2025. No wonder Jeff Bezos is scrambling to sweep out the stables at The Washington Post.”

Sweep faster, Jeff.

Posted at 8:14 am by Glenn Reynolds 20

IT’S ABOUT TIME: How Europe hopes to turn Ukraine into a ‘steel porcupine.’

First, Europe would procure more munitions and weapons systems on Ukraine’s behalf, including crucial air-defence missiles. Second, it would boost Ukraine’s own defence industry, which it calls “the most effective and cost-efficient way to support Ukraine’s military efforts”. The plan is the brainchild of Kaja Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister who is now the European Union’s top diplomat. She wants to double military aid to Ukraine this year, to €40bn ($44bn).

The case for investing in Ukraine’s indigenous arms industry is compelling. Ukraine was a big weapons-manufacturer during the Soviet era, but the industry largely vanished after independence in 1991. Nonetheless, there was an engineering base and a thriving new tech sector to draw on when Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago. The country had the foundations: a solid manufacturing sector and loads of engineering schools and universities from which people with highly specialised knowledge transitioned to defence, says Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former defence minister who chairs the Centre for Defence Strategies, a think-tank in Kyiv. “Since 2022 the development has been extremely active. There is a constant innovation process,” he adds. Whereas arms procurement in the West typically takes years, in Ukraine an idea can be translated into a weapon in a soldier’s hand within months.

Last year Ukrainian arms firms churned out $10bn-worth of kit, according to a report in March by the Ukrainian Institute for the Future (uif), another think-tank. That represented an extraordinary three-fold increase from 2023, and ten-fold from 2022. The more than 800 private and state-owned enterprises in the defence sector employ 300,000 skilled workers. Oleksandr Kamyshin, who oversees the defence industry for Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, says that this year production will be about $15bn, but the sector will have the capacity to produce about $35bn. The constraint is simply lack of money, which he hopes allies will assist with.

It’s nice to see Europe talk about really stepping up — after three years — but will they follow through?

Posted at 7:32 am by Stephen Green 47

AN OLD POINT, BUT IT CHECKS OUT:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds 25

DO TELL:

Related:

Posted at 7:14 am by Glenn Reynolds 112