Ad Orientem

CATO: A Familiar Pattern: White House Self-Dealing in US Trade & Investment Policy

2026-07-08T20:43:16.050-04:00

President Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure landed last week showing more than $2 billion in income, roughly triple 2024’s figure. Cryptocurrency alone accounted for $1.4 billion, most from meme-coin royalties and token sales tied to the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial. Read against the deals cataloged below, the filing paints a sordid picture of self-dealing within the upper echelons of the White House—or at the very least, the appearance of such.

Read the rest here.

ISW: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 7, 2026

2026-07-08T19:16:10.714-04:00

Ukraine’s intermediate-range strike campaign against a multitude of diverse targets, including Russian air defenses, petroleum product transport, other logistics, and electrical substations, is collapsing logistics in occupied Crimea. Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) Commander Major Robert “Magyar” Brovdi reported on July 7 that Ukrainian forces struck eight Russian shadow fleet tankers, including the Venera-3, Sanar-1, Sanar-17, Klimena, Teti, Alexei Savrasov, Ivan Cheremisinov, and Penelopa tankers; one dry cargo ship; and one ferry in the Sea of Azov transporting gasoline to occupied Crimea on the night of July 6 to 7.[1] Brovdi implied that the strikes against the shadow fleet vessels will inhibit Russian efforts to transport gasoline to occupied Crimea, and a local Crimea-based Telegram also reported that the tankers were ferrying gasoline to Crimea.[2] NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) data shows two heat anomalies in the Sea of Azov north of the Kerch Strait on July 7.[3] Brovdi reported on July 7 that Ukrainian forces also struck 44 electrical facilities in occupied Crimea and occupied southern Ukraine between July 1 and 7.[4] Adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Serhii Sternenko, reported on July 7 that there are fires near the Saky 110 kV and Zakhidno-Krymska 330 kV substations, near the Saky railway station, and near a known S-400 air defense system position in occupied Crimea.[5] The Ukrainian General Staff reported on July 7 that Ukrainian forces also struck two railway bridges near occupied Rozdolne (either 110 or 214 kilometers from the frontline) and Ichki (roughly 257 kilometers from the frontline) that Russian forces used for logistics.[6]

Ukrainian Presidential Office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea provided a summary on July 6 of Ukrainian strikes against occupied Crimea in June 2026, including on over 15 Russian air defense systems and radar stations; oil terminals in occupied Feodosia; oil tanks at the Kamysh-Burun Combined Heating and Power Plan in occupied Kerch; substations and the Tavriisk Thermal Power Plant in occupied Sevastopol; the Hlibiv underground gas storage facility in occupied Tarkhankhut; the Simferopol gas distribution station; transport and bridge infrastructure, particularly along the A-291 Kerch – Simferopol – Sevastopol – Tavrida and M-14 Rostov-Crimea highways; the Crimean Titan plant in occupied Armyansk; and Russian naval targets.[7] Advisor to the Crimean occupation head Oleg Kryuchkov stated on July 7 that Ukrainian strikes caused power outages in 18 raions in northern, central, western, and eastern occupied Crimea.[8] Kherson Oblast occupation head Vladimir Saldo stated on July 6 that the entirety of occupied Kherson Oblast is suffering from partial or complete power outages and declared a state of emergency on July 7.[9] Zaporizhia Oblast occupation head Yevgeny Balitsky similarly stated on July 6 that Ukrainian strikes caused some power outages in occupied Zaporizhia Oblast.[10] Crimea-based Russian telecommunications operators introduced emergency roaming in occupied Crimea as of July 7 so subscribers can connect to other operators’ networks in the event of a complete power outage.[11] Ukrainian forces have been recently intensifying their intermediate-range strike campaign against energy infrastructure, Russian military assets, and logistics in and to occupied Crimea in recent weeks, causing Russian officials to suspend railway service and limit road traffic. These strikes are degrading Russia’s air defense umbrella, impeding its ability to defend against strikes that are increasingly interdicting logistics, depriving Russia of the ability to transport fuel to occupied Crimea, exacerbating fuel shortages, and making it difficult to live and operate in the peninsula.[12]

Read the rest here.

Liturgy for the Feast of St. John of San Francisco

2026-07-04T20:27:28.259-04:00

Happy 4th of July

2026-07-04T11:35:29.041-04:00

The SSPX: When negotiations are one sided

2026-07-03T13:21:52.597-04:00

Rorate Caeli has an excellent post on this history of the dialogue and relationship between Rome and the Society of St. Pius X. It closely aligns with my own view and I strongly recommend it. See also my own post a couple spots down on the blog. Obviously I am not Catholic and so have no dog in this fight. But it would seem to me that if Rome is serious about desiring some sort of reproachment with Orthodoxy, they could start by backing off the alarming claim that the pope has the authority to unilaterally suppress the 1500 year old liturgical patrimony of the Christian West. If such power is claimed over the Latin Rite, why would this super bishop with claimed universal jurisdiction not be able to do the same thing to the liturgical rites of the Christian East? To say that said claim would be a show stopper for any kind of serious dialogue aimed at restoration of communion should be so obvious as not to require further explanation.

Bloodier than Stalingrad: Number of casualties in Russo-Ukrainian war reaches 2 million

2026-07-02T20:49:48.273-04:00

Russia’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine has now cost the country some 450,000 lives, according to a new study that estimates the war’s total casualty numbers to have surpassed 2 million.

The research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates Russia has suffered 1.4 million casualties, including killed, wounded and missing soldiers – a stunning number that amounts to roughly 1% of the country’s population.

The losses are not spread evenly across Russia, with poorer areas and ethnic minorities suffering significantly higher casualty rates. Stories of male populations of small remote villages being virtually wiped out are becoming more common in Russian opposition media. And according to the study, Russia is currently unable to recruit new troops at the same rate as it is losing them.

“These rates are astounding,” Seth G. Jones and Riley McCabe, the authors of the study, said. “Russian fatalities in Ukraine are more than four times greater than all US fatalities in all wars combined since World War II, and more than nine times greater than all Soviet and Russian fatalities in all wars combined since World War II.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine is estimated to have endured between 525,000 and 625,000 casualties, including 125,000 and 150,000 fatalities.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine release official casualty data, but the latest CSIS figures are broadly in line with western estimates.

Read the rest here.

Vatican Declares SSPX Schismatic

2026-07-02T09:51:34.295-04:00

No surprise. They consecrated bishops without permission and essentially dared Leo to do something about it. Making matters worse, this is a flagrant second offense after the SSPX asked Benedict XVI to lift the original excommunications. Which he did. The Holy See has made quite a few concessions to a group that since its inception has basically set itself up in judgement over the pope and hierarchy of their own church. So yeah, I think Leo basically saw this as a slap in the face and decided that it was time to, in his own words, "move on." Rome is clearly not inclined to leniency at this point. The entire society including its lay followers are subject to the excommunication. And Rome has issued fairly stringent conditions for their readmission to communion, on an individual and case by case basis. Reading between the lines, this suggests that the Vatican has given up on a corporate return of the Society.

Brexit 10 Years On

2026-06-27T10:30:59.806-04:00

Legalized Child Murder in the Netherlands & Anglican Liturgy for Euthanasia

2026-06-26T11:05:22.139-04:00

Netherlands does the unthinkable: euthanize a young child

Anglican Church of Canada to offer special liturgy for euthanasia deaths

This is demonic.

HT: Dr. Tighe

On the Dangers of One Party Rule

2026-06-25T09:14:34.110-04:00

...But what if we don’t actually have a competitive two-party system? What if our nation actually has two one-party systems, instead? And if the United States has two one-party systems, then that means that each way they turn voters are confronted with the arrogance, stagnation and corruption that almost always disfigures single-party rule.

The best illustration of this reality is found in state government “trifectas.” That’s the term for a state where one party controls the governor’s mansion and both houses of the state legislature. As of this month, there are 23 Republican trifectas and 16 Democratic ones. That leaves 11 states with divided governments.

Republicans may govern more states, but Democratic states tend to be more populous. As a result, a roughly equal percentage of Americans live under total red or blue rule. As of January, 39.1 percent of Americans lived in blue trifecta states, and 41.5 percent lived in red trifecta states, which means that less than 20 percent of the population lives in a divided state.

Combine trifecta state control with aggressive partisan gerrymanders, and you have exactly the situation in Congress that my colleague Tom Edsall described this week: “An overwhelming majority of House members run in districts that are safe in the general election, where the only threat to an incumbent is from a more ideologically extreme challenger in the primary.”

Another way of putting it is that the other side is so weak in so many states and congressional districts that politicians can build entire careers without having to appeal to voters on the other side of the aisle.

For example, even in a year of remarkable public discontent, in which the House may well change hands, the vast majority of members of Congress are completely safe. The Cook Political Report lists 186 districts as solid Republican and 182 districts as solid Democrat. There are only 18 tossup races. If you add in the 20 races that merely lean in one direction or the other, that gives you a grand total of 38 competitive races in a 435-member House of Representatives.

As a result, one-party politicians are often born in the parties’ bases and inept at reaching anyone even a few inches to their ideological right or left. In fact, the very effort to reach out to the opposition is usually interpreted as weakness, a misguided compromise against an uncompromising foe.

The art of compromise vanishes before our eyes. After all, generations of politicians now come from the roughly 80 percent of the country where compromise is almost always unnecessary. Compromises are internal only, as the party negotiates with itself. The opposition might as well not exist.

Read the rest here.

Prayers please...

2026-06-22T21:38:07.601-04:00

There has been a catastrophic fire at an old local hotel used to house the poor and homeless. At least six people died. Many of the survivors are indigent and will have only the clothes on their backs.

Becket Adams: CNN was right about the war, and I was wrong

2026-06-22T18:41:20.981-04:00

Conservative media often direct a lot of ire at the “mainstream press” for getting it wrong — and they are often right. But it is only fair to acknowledge that conservative media get it wrong, too.

And when it comes to President Trump’s disastrous attempt this year at playing war chief, a whole lot of conservatives got it wrong, this author included.

Following the president’s signing last week of his “Memorandum of Understanding” with Iran — an agreement good for 60 days until Washington and Tehran strike a “final deal” — there’s nothing left except to concede that the U.S. was done in by a few mines. Iran actually forced a desperate White House to the negotiating table simply by flexing what muscles it has left over the Strait of Hormuz.

The largest, most powerful, and best-funded military in the history of the world, despite inflicting massive destruction and suffering minimal casualties, was somehow defeated by a shipping channel. Our British cousins must be having flashbacks to the Suez Canal.

The most astonishing thing about the White House’s capitulation in Iran, beyond the Islamic Republic’s victory in the face of a clear power disparity, is that the White House obviously jumped into the war with no real consideration or plan for the possibility that Iran might block the Strait of Hormuz. This despite U.S. military strategists warning for decades about this exact scenario.

Read the rest here.

A Malicious Chapter in the History of American Justice

2026-06-21T12:49:45.339-04:00

An unusual tweet caught my eye last week.

It was from Josh Gerstein, Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter, and it said this: “NEW: Trump admin takes rare step to quell controversy over prosecutorial misconduct in dropped criminal case against Chicago-area anti-ICE protesters. Feds won’t fight defense demand to pay bill for activists’ legal fees.”

Here’s why it’s so notable. In our legal system, prosecutors rarely pay a criminal defendant’s legal fees, even when the government loses its case. Defendants tend to be reimbursed only when they can prove serious prosecutorial misconduct. It’s even rarer for prosecutors to agree to pay those fees. Experienced lawyers will read that tweet and know a single, simple truth.

Something very bad went down in Illinois.

Why, you might wonder, would I write about a criminal case in Chicagoland when the world is convulsed by so many seismic events? Last week alone, Trump capitulated to Iran, the United States cut some of its defense commitments to Europe, and Ukraine hit Moscow with what appears to be its largest drone attack of the war.

We’re living in a moment when every week seems to bring a new development of global importance.

But the Chicago case is indicative of the fight for justice in the Trump administration. For every high-profile case that goes to the Supreme Court, there are dozens of other, smaller cases in federal courts across the country in which the Trump administration lies, bends the rules, slanders innocent citizens and otherwise abuses the legal system to persecute its political opponents.

Read the rest here.

It seems highly probable that Britain is about to get its seventh prime minister in the last 10 years.

UK Prime Minister Under Pressure to Quit

2026-06-21T12:46:30.391-04:00

LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) - Britain's Observer newspaper said Prime Minister Keir Starmer was expected to resign on Monday and set ‌out a timetable for his departure, though a government source said Starmer remained focused on getting on with the job of governing.

The threat to Starmer's position, which has been building for months, increased sharply on Friday when his rival Andy Burnham won a seat in parliament that would allow him to launch a formal leadership challenge.

The Observer report said Starmer was discussing the matter with his wife at his Chequers country residence before making a final decision, but that senior Labour figures expected a clear statement on ⁠his future as early as Monday.

However, a government source said Starmer remained focused on his job and pointed to previous statements he has made to that effect.

The British leader said on Friday he would fight any challenge to his leadership and urged Labour not to tear itself apart with infighting.

Read the rest here.

The S&P 500 is flashing a warning sign

2026-06-21T12:36:20.578-04:00

With all of the volatility in the stock market this year, most investors probably don't realize the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is sitting at a precarious peak. The index's cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings (CAPE) ratio now hovers near a reading of 41 -- a territory that historically signals serious trouble ahead.

The CAPE ratio captures something deeper than daily price movements: It reveals how much investors are willing to pay for every dollar of long-term earnings power. At its current level, the S&P 500 appears to be pricing in unprecedented levels of optimism while quietly laying the foundation for a painful reckoning.

The CAPE ratio was originally developed by economist Robert Shiller. The metric divides the current S&P 500 price by the average inflation-adjusted earnings per share (EPS) over the previous 10 years. By doing so, the CAPE ratio smooths out any temporary spikes or dips caused by recessions, economic booms, or one-time events. This approach gives a clearer picture of sustainable valuation across the index as a whole.

At face value, the price-to-earnings ratio can appear deceptively attractive in years of strong profitability. But the CAPE forces investors to look across full business cycles. The underlying data for the CAPE ratio stretches back to 1871 -- more than 155 years of market history.

Across that span, the long-term average CAPE has hovered between 17 and 18. As the chart indicates, when the CAPE ratio climbs well above the 25 to 30 range, it has repeatedly warned that future stock returns will be disappointing.

Read the rest here.

Graham Platner, Ken Paxton and Political Hypocrisy

2026-06-19T14:39:49.367-04:00

If you want to know just how unprincipled — and how unabashedly hypocritical — politicians and their supporters can be, consider how Democrats would respond if Graham Platner were a Republican.

Platner, the Democrats’ nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, has spent weeks answering questions about his past. By now, you probably know at least some of the story. During what he describes as a dark period in his life after military service, he had a Nazi tattoo emblazoned on his chest — which he maintained for nearly two decades. He has acknowledged inappropriate relationships with women. He has made insulting comments about military heroes and said things about Black Americans that, at the very least, demonstrated remarkably poor judgment.

Now ask yourself a simple question: What would Democrats be saying if Platner were a Republican?

Read the rest here.

Union Gospel Mission of Yakima Washington v. Brown

2026-06-19T13:55:13.591-04:00

This is a significant religious liberty case that is about to be reviewed (unusually) en banc by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. I strongly suspect this is eventually going to the US Supreme Court. The Washington State law is a pernicious attack on religious freedom and should be struck down, which the the three judge panel did.

Details here.

Hegseth Attacks NATO Allies, Announces Review of US and European Military Commitments

2026-06-18T11:15:27.954-04:00

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at NATO allies on Thursday, announcing a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe whose outcome will depend on how fast the Europeans take responsibility for their own security.

The threat of a review was yet another surprise for European allies and Canada as they learn to deal with an increasingly unpredictable ally. U.S. officials and senior military officers had promised to coordinate closely with the Europeans as America draws down.

Read the rest here.

The War is Over and We Lost

2026-06-18T10:44:00.639-04:00

The preliminary deal ending President Trump’s four-month war with Iran is welcome but brings with it hard truths. Mr. Trump made a terrible mistake starting this war. He prosecuted it recklessly and in open defiance of the law. The United States is emerging weaker — militarily, diplomatically and economically — and will pay strategic costs for years to come.

The details of the deal are unclear, but the announced framework suggests that Mr. Trump has won few of the terms he insisted that he would. It is a humiliating comedown for him and the nation he leads.

Since the war began, he has said the United States would achieve “total and complete victory” and that Iran must agree to “unconditional surrender.” He suggested that regime change would occur. He said that Iran would be permitted “no enrichment” of uranium and that “the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried” near-bomb-grade nuclear material that it already holds.

None of this appears to be true. Iran’s hard-line government remains in place. The specifics of the nuclear agreement will apparently be negotiated over the next two months, but the terms seem likely to resemble those of a 2015 deal that President Barack Obama negotiated and that Mr. Trump canceled in 2018. He described the Obama agreement as the “worst deal ever” and said it put Iran on “a route to a nuclear weapon.” He criticized it for failing to force Iran to stop supporting terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and for loosening economic sanctions. Yet his destructive war seems likely to leave him with a similar deal.

Read the rest here.

There will be books written about this debacle, and it will be studied in universities, think tanks and military war colleges as one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the post-Vietnam War era. The incompetence of this president and his administration beggars the imagination.

Pope Leo XIV Issues New Warning to SSPX

2026-06-17T14:49:40.941-04:00

Looks like Leo is drawing a line in the sand.

A Deep Dive into the Death of Jeffrey Epstein

2026-06-16T11:17:45.803-04:00

Late in the afternoon of July 6, 2019, about a dozen F.B.I. agents and New York Police Department officers gathered at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, waiting out of view of the tarmac so as not to spook their quarry. The day before, they received an email informing them that a private jet would be arriving at 5:20 p.m. Attached to the email was an arrest warrant for its lone passenger, Jeffrey Epstein.

Returning from Paris, Epstein was making plans on his phone: a trip to his private island in the Caribbean, a documentary interview with Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former adviser. When the plane touched down, customs agents boarded to check the passports of Epstein and the plane’s two pilots. Then they escorted Epstein into the terminal, where an F.B.I. agent and a detective told him he was under arrest.

Epstein appeared shocked. He managed to send one last message to Bannon: “All canceled.”

Bannon wrote back immediately. “you r not coming in?” There was no reply.

As the F.B.I. agents drove Epstein to Manhattan, he asked two questions. “Is this sex trafficking?” “Is this about underage?” It was.

The F.B.I. and federal prosecutors had quietly opened a new investigation eight months earlier into Epstein’s activities in New York, focusing on victims who had not been interviewed in his decade-old sex-crimes case in Florida. While Epstein was abroad, he was indicted under seal on charges of trafficking minors for sex. If found guilty, he faced up to 45 years in prison — a sentence far worse than the 13 months he had served in Palm Beach after a plea deal in 2008.

“Oh, this is bad,” he said aloud as he was booked into federal custody. “This is really bad.”

An F.B.I. agent and a detective took Epstein to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal jail in Lower Manhattan, shortly after 9 that night. The newly arrived inmate caught the eye of a jail employee named Elba Torres as she passed his cell. Epstein appeared “distraught, sad and a little confused,” Torres reported in an email to the jail staff. When she asked him if he was OK, he replied that he was. “But I am not convinced because he seems dazed and withdrawn,” she wrote. “So just to be on the safe side and prevent any suicidal thoughts can someone from Psychology come and talk with him.”

Neither Torres nor anyone else on the jail staff seemed to have yet identified Epstein as a figure of note. But her memo, written in the early moments of his incarceration, documented an extraordinary reversal of fortune. Hours before, Epstein had been cocooned within a personal empire of luxury and influence that had for years seemed to operate effectively beyond the reach of the law. Now he was in an overcrowded federal jail in an inmate’s uniform, reduced to a Bureau of Prisons number: 76318-054. It was the beginning of a journey into darkness that would end 35 days later, in the early hours of Aug. 10, 2019, when a guard found him unresponsive in his cell, hanging from a noose made from orange jail fabric.

The New York City medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide. But seven years later, the theory that Epstein didn’t kill himself, that he was murdered by someone with an interest in keeping him quiet, is held by many people who agree about little else. A broader discontent and suspicion around the handling of his death helped prompt the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress with bipartisan support in November, which has since resulted in the disclosure of more than three million pages of Epstein-related documents, photos and videos.

These include tens of thousands of pages of documents and hundreds of hours of video gathered in the official investigations into Epstein’s death: an initial inquiry by Justice Department prosecutors with F.B.I. agents and New York City detectives and a yearslong investigation by the Justice Department inspector general, both of which concluded that Epstein died by suicide.

The newly released records have raised more questions about his death — but they have also offered the clearest opportunity yet to answer them. Over the years, The New York Times and other news outlets sued for records from these investigations, but even those hard-won documents were dwarfed by the volume of what was now public. Congressional action had made possible the fullest examination yet of Epstein’s death, and we set out to do it.

Read the rest here.

Historic Orthodox Monastery Burns After Russian Attack

2026-06-15T10:46:30.087-04:00

Kyiv — A prominent Ukrainian monastery complex in the heart of Kyiv was set on fire following a massive Russian attack overnight into Monday that killed at least five people and wounded more than two dozen in the capital, according to local authorities.

Images showed flames billowing from the UNESCO-listed Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which traces its roots back almost 1,000 years, and firefighters beneath the towers and domes of its Dormition Cathedral battling to control the blaze.

A CNN journalist reported hearing several explosions during the overnight attack, during which Russia launched 611 long-range strike UAVs and 70 missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.

By daybreak, firefighters were still working to douse the flames at the complex. Ukraine’s emergency services said a fire had affected 800 square meters of the roof of the Dormition Cathedral, and released images that showed damage to the building.

The Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine asked for “prayers for the salvation of the shrine from destruction,” in a statement. “Another Russian crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity.”

A fire also broke out in the building of the National Cultural, Art and Museum Complex, covering an area of 1,000 square meters, according to Ukraine’s emergency services.

Read the rest here.

The New Right's Blueprint for Building a Christian America

2026-06-14T11:55:47.901-04:00

Not going to excerpt this one. It's a longish read.

Southern Baptists Say 'No' to Women Pastors

2026-06-13T14:24:49.327-04:00

Orlando, FloridaAP — Thousands of Southern Baptists overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to advance a formal ban on women pastors in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, sending a clear message that men alone should preach to these conservative evangelical congregations.

The amendment would tighten existing restrictions in the Southern Baptist Convention, which already has a faith statement opposing women pastors.

The vote at the annual meeting was 6,028 to 2,026 — a 3-to-1 margin — which easily exceeded the required two-thirds majority. It will require a similar two-thirds vote at next year’s meeting to become part of the constitution.

The two-day meeting concluded Wednesday after bringing more than 11,000 delegates, or messengers, to a cavernous convention center in Orlando, Florida.

Read the rest here.

Defense decoupling is no longer just a European fear — it’s Trump’s policy

2026-06-13T14:20:47.076-04:00

When news broke that the Pentagon wouldn’t sell long-range Tomahawk missiles to Germany, it suggested Washington might fear Moscow would view such a capability in Europe’s hands as dangerous escalation.

The move came on the heels of similar signs of U.S. disengagement that had been going on for weeks, including the decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, halt the planned deployment of a U.S. battalion equipped with Tomahawk missiles, and make severe reductions in planned U.S. contributions of bombers, fighters, destroyers, submarines and other forces needed to bolster NATO defenses in a crisis or attack.

The Pentagon claims these steps are necessary to rebalance European and U.S. contributions to the continent’s defense, but the decision to halt the Tomahawk sale points to a far more disquieting reality: Not only is Washington no longer deploying deep precision strike systems to Europe, it’s also denying its European allies the capacity to arm themselves with these systems out of fear of Russia’s reaction.

In other words, the U.S. is now actively looking to decouple its security from Europe’s.

Read the rest here.