In The Wall Street Journal’s editorial yesterday about Nancy Pelosi’s speakerships and the lessons the GOP can learn from them, the Journal gave Speaker Pelosi due credit for “believ[ing] in American freedom” and visiting both Ukraine and Taiwan this year. However, as Walter Russell Mead said at the time of her trip to Taiwan in August:
“Mrs. Pelosi is sincere in her support for Taiwan …. But to make that support effective, she should have beat the drum for the past 15 years for greater military preparedness even if this meant larger defense appropriations.”
Which is the problem with too many people in Washington. Verbal support, even visits, are easy. What is hard is the work of military preparedness and of finding the money to pay for that preparation, even if it means spending less on fancier sounding, more politically appealing domestic programs. That is what Speaker Pelosi, like too many others, has not done.
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