Feb. 14—Today, the Defense Ministers of NATO began a two-day session. They have a mission to pull together whatever armaments, tanks, etc., that can be pulled together, for a vaunted spring counteroffensive in Ukraine, in a desperate attempt to trade blood for an improved deal at the negotiating table. They also have a new strategy paper, challenging them to figure out a way to simultaneously fight one war in Europe along with an “out-of-area” one in Asia. Later this week, over Feb. 17-19, the Munich Security Conference convenes for three days, evidently on how to provide for security without considering the concerns of the world’s largest nuclear power. For the first time in post-Soviet Russia, Moscow’s officials have been refused an invitation.
