Mild-mannered No More: On Morning Joe, Haass Calls for ‘Dead Russian Soldiers’

The Thursday evening Morning JoeWhile discussing Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, Richard Haass, a normally calm-mannered member of the Council on Foreign Relations, shed his temper while criticizing the Russian intervention.  

All of the The topic is being discussed by morning show punditsHaass offered the harshest advice: Make Putin vulnerable and kill Russian troopsHaass stated, “I hate being so blunt. Putin is the most at risk for this: dead Russian soldiers.Therefore, we must make sure Ukraine has the means to resist.
 

Haass is the author of a recent piece. The New York TimesHis article, entitled “The West must Show Putin how Wrong It Is To Choose war,” contained one encouraging observation. He claimed that “wars of choice,” like Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, “often begin well, but end badly,” for the invader. 

Just before Mika turned on Haass to Mika, retired Admiral Stavridis could be heard saying: “We are viewing the History Channel unfold live right here.” “We are back on the 1930s rocket ride.”

The liberal media’s second-guessing of Biden’s handling the crisis was something that wasn’t seen on Thursday morning. The closest was Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York TimesWriting that Russian troops invaded Ukraine Thursday It was painfully obvious that [the European Union]Had badly miscalculated” It is possible to imagine that the threat of sanctions will deter Putin.

By implication, this is also an indictment against BidenThis is because his strategy included relying on “severe” sanctions to disarm Putin.

ClearChoice and LifeLock were sponsors of Morning Joe’s Richard Haass (normally mild-mannered) stating that Putin is most vulnerable against “dead Russian soldier”. 

You can find the transcription here.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/24/22
6:21 am ET

JAMES STATRIDIS: The next thing I see will be some serious troop movements and tank movement [air raid sirens in Kyiv heard going off in split screen]Led by — There are air raid sirens going off in real-time. We’re actually watching History Channel live here in real time. It’s a trip back in time to the 1930s.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI Oh, my. Richard Haass. You’ve a piece called “The West Must Show Putin What a Wrong Choice He Made.” He’s not listening to anyone so far. All predictions about how terrible things could be coming true are being confirmed. Which is the most dangerous option, and what should the U.S. do about it?

RICHARD Haas: Mika is right to let Mr. Putin win with his unjustified, unjustified illegal, and moral war of choice. It was not necessary that Russia did what he is doing now. It’s possible that Madeleine Albright, and other commentators have said it will not come true. We have to do this now. 

Now we need to respond to the war of his choice. 

Although I don’t like to sound so harsh, Putin is most at risk from dead Russian soldiers. We must ensure that Ukraine is equipped with the necessary tools to resist. 

. . . 

With every tool at our disposal, we must think this through. It is important not to be smug. Some comfort can be found in history. These wars of choice like this one often start well, but they end in a bad way. That’s what we have seen for the United States. It was the same for Russia in Afghanistan. The two key ingredients are to increase the cost of invading countries and to create opposition within the home. To basically feed and maintain the wariness and fatigue of the domestic population. We need to do that here.