Even inspirational leaders make boneheaded calls, as with firing an innovative defense minister.
By MAX BOOT Washington Post July 20, 2026
Of the leaders in the world’s nearly 200 countries, there is none that I admire as much as Volodymyr Zelensky. He has been a profile in courage with few equals since the days of Winston Churchill. His country might not still exist if he had heeded the urging of allies to flee when Russian troops were just outside Kyiv in February 2022. He reportedly turned down a U.S. evacuation offer by saying, famously, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
Though Zelensky is an inspirational wartime leader, he is not infallible. Roughly once a year he makes a boneheaded decision. Almost exactly a year ago, Zelensky tried to curb the power of independent anti-corruption watchdogs, but Ukrainians’ protests forced him to pull back. Last week, he sacked his popular defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, triggering the second set of significant street protests since the war’s start.
Read more on the Washington Post |
The response to a beach flyover shows the best of the military and the worst of the defense secretary. By MAX BOOT
Substack July 20, 2026
Last week, a Blue Angels jet buzzed a crowded beach in Pensacola, Florida. Typically the Navy’s elite flight-demonstration squadron does not fly lower than 500 feet over people on the ground. In this case, the jet was probably less than 100 feet from the beachgoers.
Normally the leadership of the Defense Department would have nothing to say about a breach of flight rules, leaving the handling of the incident to the Navy chain of command. But for the frat-boys running the Defense Department—which they insist on referring to as, heh-heh, the War Department—it has become a point of pride to allow dangerous flyovers. Read more on Substack
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