Rusty Tanks

It has come to my attention that some Russian news media have claimed “rusty” tanks were displayed in Washington, D.C., on the 4th of July. Furthermore, some Russian sources went so far as to describe the tanks as “rusty and battered.”

Not just rusty. Not just battered. Rusty and battered.

So it has come to this: name-calling, and third-rate name-calling at that. When I was a boy, the U.S. and Russia had a proper Cold War, with missiles pointed at each other and movies like “The Hunt for Red October” in theaters. Now the Russian propaganda machine has sunk to calling our tanks rusty. Come on Russia, you can do better!

And if the Russian news media can’t invent better insults, they should say nothing. In the words of an American proverb, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”