Final Word from Thursday, April 14, 2022
Half a year into his presidency, Donald Trump ordered an "assessment of the manufacturing capacity, defense industrial base, and supply-chain resiliency of the United States." Nine months later his defense dept. published its report, which found an overreliance on China for strategic and critical defense materials. After Joe Biden took office, he reversed many of Trump's decisions, but he ordered his defense secretary to update the supply-chain report. Keeping the military battle-ready is any president's duty. Just over 100 days into the new Czech government, House Speaker Markéta Pekarová Adamová of TOP 09 said that her party's leadership supports the recent EU resolution calling for an immediate full embargo on imports of Russian oil, coal, nuclear fuel and gas. Yet the coalition she represents has not ordered an assessment of whether an immediate embargo would impair the military's ability to defend against attack. Can the CR prepare for war with Russia without Russian gas? [ Czech Republic president Parliament department ]
Glossary of difficult words
reliance - dependence on or trust in someone or something;
resiliency/resilience - the ability to withstand adversity and to recover from difficulty;
battle-ready/combat-ready - sufficiently equipped, trained and numerically strong to engage an enemy;
to impair - to weaken or damage (something, esp. a faculty or function).