Pat Reilly, the NBA coach and then general manager, apparently would talk about the disease of me or of more--that after winning a championship, repeating becomes hard because players focus more on themselves and less on the team. This is not what I am discussing today, but this is where the phrase came from.
Today, the disease of MOAR is the nearly constant demand for leaders to do more than are currently doing. The status quo can never be quite good enough--leaders must do more. The media often ask: there is this thing you are doing, why aren't you doing more? The opposition, if they like a policy, can argue that it is insufficient and demand MOAR. The two, the opposition and the media, feed off each other as they demand more.
Why am I thinking about this now? Because folks are demanding that the US, Canada, and NATO do MOAR to help Ukraine. Let's see...they have cooperating more than we thought possible two weeks ago to levy and enforce very painful sanctions. They have almost competed with each other to arm the Ukrainians. They have reinforced the defenses of neighboring countries. They have engaged in much diplomacy both to build the cooperation on this side and to try to get Russia/Putin to relent. They have given Ukrainian President Zelenskyy heaps of platforms.
BUT WE NEED TO DO MOAR!!! We need to do a no fly zone, we need to intervene directly. I have written about the NFZ and memed as well [here's my very blunt tv hit on this]. I won't get into it now except to say that it is quite normal for Ukrainians to demand that the west does more including getting involved quite directly via a NFZ that would lead to Americans and Canadians and Germans and Brits and French and others killing Russians in Ukraine and in Russia. This certainly would be MOAR, but given that Ukraine is facing horrific assaults, these folks can demand MOAR.
The media? Probably not. They should be aware that certain steps on the escalation ladder are more risky than others. We have spent nearly 80 years trying not to engage in wars with nuclear power states because we don't know that they will stop at the conventional level. In this crisis, we are very close the threshold where MOAR means a real risk of nuclear war. Which means that asking for MOAR is pretty damned irresponsible (unless you are Ukrainian).
But it is so easy and tempting to ask for MOAR because it puts the government on the defensive, having to explain that having the technical ability to do MOAR does not mean that MOAR is a good idea. The good news is that in this case, MOAR is so very bad that it isn't going to happen. Biden won't do it, and he won't be pushed by Trudeau and others to do it.
I just wish folks would take seriously that MOAR is not always better and be critical of those who demand MOAR.
Nice TV clip and I thought your points in your post were excellent. I still chuckle. I am amazed that anyone, well other than Zelensky who clearly is under tremendous stress, would ask for a no-fly-zone. Russia is not Libya for heavens's sake!
ReplyDeleteHas the USA & NATO spent so much time beating up on small, poor, opponents that people cannot realize that Russia is a peer militarily?
I think it would be a great idea to have a no-fly-zone. Of course the life expectancy of, let's say a plane, would be about 5 minutes once it crossed the Ukrainian border but what the heck. /sarc
Wouldn't "we are very close the threshold" flow better if "to" were added?
ReplyDeleteSorry to be pedantic but I do like to enjoy the message, not stumble on the wording.
Excellent analysis - I agree!
ReplyDeleteFor lazy journalists, the "MOAR!" articles practically write themselves -- just find one or two people demanding "moar", get a govt spokesperson to say "can't be done" and end with a trite homily about how the meanie government will rue the day that it didn't listen. Then hit "publish" and you're done!