Sir, May I Have Another

Talk

President Trump had a “conversation” with President Putin of Russia on Saturday.  From what we can gather, Trump tried to persuade Putin to join Ukraine in a ceasefire.  Putin didn’t give Trump a definitive answer on the phone, other than saying Russia hadn’t achieved their war goals yet.  After they hung up the call, Putin launched one of the largest drone and missile attacks of the war on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.  Those attacks haven’t let up.  Last night, Kyiv was attacked again:  700 drones and missiles tried to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.

Trump voiced his frustration with Putin’s actions, but his response to continuing mass attacks on Ukraine is just words.  And when asked why his Defense Secretary held up weapons shipments to Ukraine, he feigned ignorance.  At least, let’s hope he “feigned” it.  Because if the President of the United States really didn’t know that his own military was holding up weapons to the beleaguered nation, that’s a whole different issue.  Trump’s foreign policies are difficult enough to follow, without the inexperienced Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, going “rogue”.  

Bully

For a number of years I was the Dean of Students of a high school.  One of the most difficult parts of the job was dealing with “bullies”.  It sounds like it should be easy:  find the bully, and remove him or her (yes, her, sometimes the hardest cases).  But it was often not that clear cut, with blame enough to go around.  And, the normal “first punch” rule didn’t necessarily apply, since the victim was often the one who finally responded with force.  

Parents expected that their complaints would be immediately resolved. We tried.  We used “progressive discipline”: each offense earned a more serious penalty, until a crisis was reached.  To frustrated adults, all “the talk” was a waste of time. It enabled their child to be bullied even more.  They wanted action.  And they blamed the school if something wasn’t done, right now.  

Sometimes “the talk” really did work, and bullying ended at the lowest level.  But when it didn’t, things often got ugly.  My toughest phone conversations were with parents convinced we weren’t doing enough.  They thought we were “being played” by the bully, or his parents.

Take a Stand

At the end of the “progression”, I had to take a stand.  The “bully” was removed from the scene.  And if it was beyond the school, especially as social media bullying became more prevalent, then the local police and Courts were included in the solution.  When we ended up in Court, it was important to be able to show all the steps we tried, everything we did before we finally removed the bully from school.   

Because for some “bullies”, words were useless.   Whatever made them want to harass another student was so much more important to them than anything the school administration could do. They wouldn’t stop.  And, from the Dean of Student’s office, nothing was more frustrating than “just talk”, talk that didn’t work.  It felt helpless, like the poor fraternity pledge in the old movie “Animal House”, bending over in his underwear, waiting for the paddle, then saying “Thank You Sir, may I have another”.  (An historic note: it was Kevin Bacon’s first movie role).

Leader of the Free World

There’s a vision:  Putin with the paddle, and Donald Trump asking for another.  Every phone call where Trump asks for “peace”, Putin returns with an increased attack on Ukraine.  The only problem is, it’s not Trump that taking the “blow”. It’s the good people of Ukraine.  And instead of the United States, at least, providing more defensive weapons to stop the attacks, our “Defense Bro” Secretary is holding up the shipments.  

And maybe that’s the real Trump strategy.  Let Russia attack and let Ukraine suffer so that their President Zelenskyy will “give up”, and accept both the Russian incursions and US demands for “rare earth”.   I think that’s a terrible plan. It’s likely to give Russia “permission” to bully the other nations that once were part of the Soviet Union. But at least it would be “a plan”. 

Because right now it looks like the Trump Administration is just bending over in its collective underwear, waiting for  “Pledge Master” Putin to give Ukraine another.  That’s an incredibly weak look, for the “leader of the free world”.