Washington Post

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for and after pictures of many of the cities in Ukraine that have been decimated by Russian bombing. I think there was something about an extremely moving violent music playing in the background. I mean, obviously you know you're being shown something horrible and you're meant to see it, but there was something about it all brought together in one short group of images that I assume members of Congress, even those who follow the news and we do as well. It's it makes your stomach drop seeing seeing the destruction.

He was he gave a similar sort of address as he's given to the Canadian parliament to the UK parliament. He's he's doing a tour and he's doing it very purposefully.

He didn't over a moat. He just kind of he's extremely stalwart stoic even but the phrase that he kept repeating in the in the targeting directly to Biden was you if you're the leader of the free world, you have to be a leader of peace.

And I think that was actually quite effective messaging saying part of leadership is making sure you keep the peace you be the leader of peace and to keep the peace you sometimes have to assume Zalensky's messages go to war. I mean, he they're at war. So that part of the message I thought was was persuasive as to the details of what he wants. We're still in the same conundrum that we've been debating here on the podcast. So I'm not sure in terms of whether there's going to be a no fly zone. But as a as a as a message as a sort of pulling at the hard strings.

I'm trying to message I thought it was very powerful and I'll be interested to hear what you guys think and what Congress Congress's response is.

Yeah, I think that the close the skies was particularly effective immediately following the film because it's he sort of showed the the hell raining down from the skies and then said stop this.

The sky is actually the first close the sky over Ukraine. Right. And and he said, you know, stop. This is the stop what you just saw. And it's also where he abandoned the translator, right, which I think was a good tone shift.

It was interesting. I think that Zelensky who apparently does speak English. He that that was not like he was reading that last section, the sort of last three or four minutes phonetically that he decided to deliver most of the speech in Ukrainian. I assume was Ukrainian and not Russian. I'm not I'm not I'm not sure. But

because I think he wanted to seem authentic. And like it wasn't that much of a performance and that and that he he's still speaking mostly to his people for his people.

Whereas, you know, we're used to these moments where foreign leaders come before Congress and these joint sessions. There aren't there aren't many of them. I mean, there was be even that Yahoo in 2015.

Voslav Havill gave a famous speech before Congress that was incredibly philosophically complex. And in which he said things like I have now decided as I have aged that being proceeds consciousness and then received the standing ovation when you know that like 400 of the 535 people in that room had no idea what on earth he was talking about when he said.

That it meant a lot that he now believe that being proceeds consciousness. And this was a much more work been like speech. It was pretty plain. I mean, it wasn't there were no rhetorical flourishes particularly. I mean, we don't really know because we don't know what it's like in the original language.

It was very basic. He said it's like, you know, reminded of you know 911 I'm remind you know this is like 911 is happening every single day here just to give you a sense of what it's like.

But but the whole his whole effect is being an informal not grand person right he's sitting there in an effectively in a tea and like.

And then you know, you know, you know, you know, it's a bit of an off-leisure garbage you know he was in this right this kind of green.

No, what you would call it like you say like athlete what the tea.

No, but it was like it was like it was like athlete sure and with this.

This is military. They're military fatigues or military fatigues. Yeah, T shirted. Yeah, he sometimes has a hoodie though.

All right. So well, okay, but it reads it reads I apologize for being illiterate in this in this respect. But I mean, if you take me then as an example of what.

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