I was struck by the title of this article in The New York Times:
The article begins:
This time, when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrives in the Oval Office, he will come with backup.
An array of European prime ministers and presidents are flying in for the meeting on Monday to make sure that a viable, defensible Ukraine survives whatever carving up of its territory is about to happen at the negotiating table.
But they are also there to make certain that the trans-Atlantic alliance emerges intact. President Trump’s instant reversal on the critical issue of obtaining a cease-fire before negotiating over land or security guarantees has left many of them shaken, and wondering whether Mr. Trump had once again been swayed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
By most accounts, the European officials want to ensure that Mr. Trump has not pivoted too close to the Russian side, and does not try to strong-arm Mr. Zelensky into a deal that will ultimately sow the seeds of Ukraine’s dissolution. And they want to safeguard against the risk of the United States, the linchpin of European security since NATO’s creation in 1949, undermining that interest.
This reminded me of the TV cop show trope when a cop, sometimes alone and sometimes with a partner, is about to enter the house of a suspect they believe is dangerous.
When we watch the show we may say “call for backup you idiot or idiots. Sometimes one partner says it to another.
For dramatic effect the cop, or pair of cops, never wait for backup. They always enter the house by themselves.
Officer Zelenskyy went into the criminals lair by himself the first time. We know what happened to him then.
Now he is being more than prudent. He is being damn smart.
In fact, since he knows the nature of the threat and that the crime boss he’s about to confront has been laying in wait for him and has consulted with his international criminal counterpart, he is bringing his version of a SWAT team.
I say, good for him.
Addendum:
I was pleased that other media didn’t use the word “backup.” For example, the AP:
Excerpt:
KYIV (AP) — European and NATO leaders announced Sunday that they’ll be joining President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for crucial talks with President Donald Trump, rallying around the Ukrainian leader after his exclusion from Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The remarkable move — with one European leader after another announcing that they’ll be at Zelenskyy’s side when he travels to the White House on Monday — was an apparent effort to ensure that the meetinggoes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated the Ukrainian president in a heated Oval Office encounter.
This is how The Washington Post put it:
How’s that for a wishy-washy title?
The BBC focused on the day itself rather than the fact that Zelenskyy is being accompanied by other world leaders:
The worst title I saw was this from the UK edition of The Guardian.
It seems obvious to me that whoever wrote this insulting unserious title is patting themselves on the back thinking how fucken clever they are. In fact, it suggests that Zelenskyy is weak and not smart.
Afterthought:
If there’s any doubt that Trump has become an enemy, all Zelenskyy and the European leaders have to do is read this Trump Truth Social post:
