Wouldn’t it be nice if the war in Ukraine were entirely one side’s fault, if the U.S. had one political party that did everything perfectly, if USAID had only ever caused either benefit or harm, and if all the self-contradictory gibberish coming out of Trump’s pie hole were either lies or holy gospel? A lot of people sure seem to think so.

Here in the real world, things are ever so slightly more complex than in a cartoon. A war can develop through evil actions by two — count ’em — sides. And that’s not all. Those evil actions can be — gasp! — very different and unequal to each other. I know. I know. It makes the brain just throb, right?

An agency can both feed the hungry and help overthrow governments for imperialist thugs. It seems impossible, if only because costume designers will have no idea how to dress such an agency. And yet.

A president can demand that governments spend vastly more on wars and propose cutting war spending in half. The same skills that once made the holy Trinity both single and triple can make sense of this. The threats and demands are brilliant negotiating, or the proposed reductions are a brilliant distraction.........

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