Final Word from Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Four days before Defense Min. Jana Černochová made the non-issue of a U.S. military base in the CR a real political issue, she said in Parliament that she completely agrees with Ukraine Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky when he accuses Russia of genocide in Ukraine. It took U.S. Pres. Joe Biden another week to use the word. His press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that the president "was speaking to what we all see, what he feels is clear as day in terms of the atrocities happening on the ground" but that he also noted that "of course there will be a legal process that plays out in the courtroom." French Pres. Emmanuel Macron stuck to the legal definition and said that, according to international conventions, countries that consider it genocide have an obligation to intervene and that this would mean becoming a co-belligerent. "Do we want to intervene as of tomorrow?" he asked. He has a run-off election to win and can't be seen to be driving his country into war. In Biden's case, the issue is whether his comment foreshadows an official change in U.S. policy. In Černochová's case, it seems that she truly is eager to go to war. [ Czech Republic Vladimir Putin cobelligerent co-belligerence United States ]