LONDINIUM, 91 AD: Gaius (John Batchelor) and Germanicus (Michael Vlahos) observe the events of the 21st century, which this week include a shocking meeting at the White House. The heated exchange between President Trump and President Zelenskyy was, in the words of Germanicus, “the necessary public theater in which the false narrative could meet and collide with actual reality and be destroyed.”
As Romans, it can be puzzling to see how media works. There was reason to believe that the media worked magnificently when no one was in charge—you just let the cameras roll live.
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty minutes in the Oval Office, heaps of reporters on all sides, the major cabinet figures arranged on either side of the president. The president of Ukraine momentarily in a talking press conference before the signing of a treaty, an arrangement which would permit the war to end in Ukraine, and then a luncheon.
And yet, there it is. It reminds me of a shocking end of a World Series game. You can't believe it happened, but it's done. It's in the history books. Nobody planned it. The events of Friday are burned into history in Europe. And we as Romans observing from the 1st century AD can make some observations, certainly.
I begin, however, to ask what this means for the war-fighting and for what appears to be a deteriorating scene for the Ukrainians that will only get worse because of a manpower shortage. Ukraine has oddly and stubbornly refused to draft 18-to-25-year-olds. Very odd given that they're asking for NATO or the United States to defend them with 18-to-25-year-olds, which is what makes up the military for the United States in the enlisted ranks.
What should we make of Ukraine's conduct on Friday, keeping in mind the extremely difficult road ahead in these next months time for a spring offensive?
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