Washington Post Opinions Roundup of June 1, 2025

These opinion pieces from the Washington Post cover a diverse range of topics, reflecting current events and societal discussions. One article champions Kansas City’s burgeoning taco scene, contrasting its authentic culinary landscape with outdated perceptions and a popular fast-food relic. Another piece critiques Elon Musk’s recent stint in Washington, asserting that his purported efforts at government reform were driven by pettiness rather than genuine ambition, leading to detrimental outcomes. Finally, an article analyzes a recent Ukrainian drone attack on Russian air bases, suggesting it marks a pivotal moment in warfare by exposing vulnerabilities in traditional air defense and highlighting the evolving significance of drone technology in modern conflict. Together, these selections offer commentary on culture, politics, and military strategy.

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Kansas City: America’s Taco Capital and Culinary Fusion

The term “Kansas City taco” refers to a specific mid-century relic: a deep-fried, hard corn shell with ground beef, shredded lettuce, and cheese powder. Alan Carr, who heads Visit Kansas City Kansas, a visitors bureau, believes this description likely refers to In-A-Tub, a former local fast-food chain.

Historically, In-A-Tub was known for an “appalling — but delicious — deep-fried edible liberally dusted with a neon-orange powder,” which the source likens to a bag of Cheetos crushed under a dump truck. This “Kansas City taco” originated in the city’s old meatpacking district, where Latin American and Italian immigrants worked and ate together. One culture contributed the taco, and the other introduced the idea of sprinkled cheese, with Middle America then deep-frying it and turning it orange. It was considered a “perfect-for-teenagers handheld coronary”.

However, the “Kansas City taco” described by New Yorker writer Hannah Goldfield left a “wrong impression” of the overall taco situation in the area. Alan Carr, an “apostle of Kansas City’s vast, varied and magnificent taco scene,” stated that In-A-Tub is now a “mere husk of its former self,” having dwindled to its last two outlets. Therefore, if one goes looking for a “Kansas City taco” today, the chances of it being “dusted in orange” are slim.

In recent decades, the region, particularly Kansas City, Kansas (KCK), has become a “wonderland of street tacos,” leading the way in this culinary transformation. KCK is described as a “mosaic of immigrant cultures,” with roughly 35 percent Latino, 35 percent White, and 20 percent Black populations. In mom-and-pop restaurants and grocery store counters across the city, cooks prepare both traditional and innovative “little flavor bombs on tender tortillas,” including varieties like al pastor, birria, barbacoa, and asada.

To promote restaurants affected by the covid-19 pandemic, the KCK visitors bureau created the Taco Trail in 2020. This trail features some 60 restaurants in just a “single slice” of the sprawling metro area, and a comprehensive guide to Greater Kansas City’s taco scene would run into “hundreds of restaurants and food trucks — maybe more”. The map and details of the Taco Trail have been downloaded thousands of times, and over 120 diners have completed the “yummy marathon”. Alan Carr notes that completing the trail requires visiting “only a little more than one restaurant per week for a year”.

The Kansas City taco scene has received external recognition:

• New Yorker writer Hannah Goldfield reported on the “superb flour tortillas” being made in Kansas City and the surrounding vicinity, focusing on Ruben Leal of nearby Lawrence, Kansas, whose Sonoran-style discs she found “ethereally light and flavorful”.
• A contributor to Forbes Online, Brandon Schultz, pronounced KCK “America’s taco capital” after copious sampling on the Taco Trail in 2021.
• While Texas Monthly magazine “begged to disagree,” its taco editor, José R. Ralat, scouted the competition and found favorites such as the brisket taco at GG’s Barbacoa Café in KCK, which he noted as a “beautiful merger of smoke,” combining Kansas City’s famous barbecue tradition with tacos. Ralat also found other high points at eateries across the metro area.

Alan Carr emphasizes that people “don’t think people really understood how many authentic little restaurants we have in Kansas City,” and despite being known for barbecue, the city is also “really good at tacos”. The overall message is that the “nation of immigrants stretches from coast to coast, mixing flavors and sounds and traditions with joy and gusto and just the right seasonings, tasty and vibrant all the way through,” dispelling the notion that “America is not bland in the middle”.

Elon Musk’s DOGE Failure: Petty Ambition, Plummeting Standing

Elon Musk’s recent endeavors, particularly his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are presented as a significant failure, characterized not by overly grand ambitions, but by “pathetically small” ones.

His stated aim for DOGE was to achieve sweeping cost savings, initially declaring a goal of cutting $2 trillion from the annual budget, later amending it to a floor of $1 trillion. Beyond mere cuts, there was an implicit expectation that Musk, known for his innovative tech ventures, would modernize the federal bureaucracy, possibly reinventing government as a trustworthy app or a single accessible website, making services feel more like CarPlay. He had a “singular opportunity to create the government of our sci-fi dreams,” envisioning something leaner, better, more accessible, and even “more fun”.

However, the sources indicate that Musk’s actual strategy and actions were far removed from these lofty ideals. Instead, he seemed motivated primarily to “terrorize the federal workforce” and to “fire as many people as he could, in as humiliating a way as possible”. This approach is described as a “shockingly lightweight” reform strategy, merely a “reorg. plan”.

The consequences of DOGE under Musk’s leadership are highlighted as follows:

• By its own “highly suspect accounting,” DOGE saved taxpayers only about $175 billion, which is less than 3% of the budget.
• One estimate suggests that the cuts actually cost the government $135 billion.
• DOGE earned the distinction of being the “first in a long line of reform initiatives to actually make the problem worse”.
• Musk’s widely publicized promises of massive savings provided “cover to lawmakers crafting a massive reconciliation bill dependent on borrowing,” resulting in a “debt-exploding tax package”.

Musk has attempted to explain his perceived failures by claiming DOGE lacked the power to impose large-scale reforms due to opposition from the three branches of government, describing it as a “whipping boy”. He also attributes his flameout to being “smacked down to earth by powerful forces of gravity and inertia”. However, the author refutes this, stating that his failure was due to a “pedestrian kind of pettiness” and a “lack of gravity,” rather than Icarus-like ambition or external forces.

Beyond the operational failures of DOGE, Musk’s overall public standing and business performance have also suffered. His “personal brand has become so toxic” that Tesla’s sales are down at least 9% domestically and closer to 50% in Europe. His standing among the public, board members, and investors has “plummeted”. Other questionable behaviors mentioned include his “bizarre strutting around with a chain saw” and a “Nazi salute” during post-inaugural festivities, which, while previously not damaging to his standing, now seem to compound his issues. Furthermore, he is noted for “manipulating the site [Twitter] to elevate his own views above all others” after advocating for an uncensored town square, and for personally negotiating deals for Starlink with foreign leaders to avoid crippling tariffs, which is described as a “shakedown by implication”.

This starkly contrasts with his earlier public image as a visionary akin to Tony Stark – “brilliant, daring, uncontainable” – whose wealth seemed an accidental byproduct of his “grandiose, comic-book-inspired dreams”. These past ambitions included saving the Earth with electric vehicles (Tesla), colonizing Mars (SpaceX), developing a planetary wireless internet (Starlink), and creating a lightning-quick underground transport system (Hyperloop). His failure with DOGE is thus presented as a significant deviation from his expected “superhero aspirations”.

Ukraine’s Drone Revolution: Operation Spiderweb and Modern Warfare

Ukraine has significantly rewritten the rules of warfare through its innovative use of drones. This was notably demonstrated in Operation Spiderweb, a surprise drone attack carried out against five Russian air bases, with two located thousands of miles away in the Russian Far North and Siberia.

Key aspects of Ukraine’s drone warfare include:

• Methodology and Reach: The Ukrainian intelligence service (SBU) managed to sneak large numbers of drones deep inside Russia by transporting them in wooden cabins via truck, then launching them remotely. This audacious tactic allowed them to strike targets far from the front lines.
• Impact and Cost-Effectiveness: President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Operation Spiderweb destroyed or disabled a third of the bombers Russia uses for long-range cruise missiles, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers and A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft. While independent confirmation of this damage is pending, the operation highlighted the immense cost-effectiveness of drone warfare; swarms of Ukrainian drones costing tens of thousands of dollars might have inflicted an estimated $2 billion of damage on Russia’s sophisticated aircraft.
• Strategic Implications and Vulnerability:
• Russian military bloggers compared the attack to Pearl Harbor, drawing an analogy not to the start of a new war, but to the obsolescence of once-dominant weapons systems, specifically suggesting that manned aircraft may now be as outdated as battleships were in 1941.
• The attack revealed a critical vulnerability for air bases worldwide, demonstrating that cheap, ubiquitous drones can be easily modified for military use and pose a threat even to supposedly secure facilities. This necessitates a massive investment in counter-drone systems and suggests that spending on conventional manned weapons systems may increasingly be a waste.
• Response to Challenges: Operation Spiderweb is not presented as a decisive blow but as a testament to Ukraine’s resilience and adaptability. It reflects Ukraine’s strategy to make up for its manpower deficit by developing a world-leading drone industry. Ukrainians reportedly produced 2.2 million drones last year and aim to build 4.5 million this year. Despite Russia also building drones (with Iranian assistance), they have consistently been a step or two behind Ukraine in this “drone race”.
• Tactical Ingenuity: Faced with dwindling ammunition for their Patriot air-defense systems and a lack of replacements, particularly from President Donald Trump, the Ukrainians demonstrated ingenuity by finding a way to disable the aircraft that launch Russian missiles while they are still on the tarmac, rather than solely attempting to shoot down missiles in flight. This tactical innovation was described as Zelensky playing his “trump card”.
• Broader Geopolitical Ramifications: The attack, while signaling Ukrainian resolve, could also undermine nuclear stability because the bombers targeted are designed to launch both conventional and nuclear weapons. Furthermore, it is seen as a high-pressure tactic needed to persuade Putin to negotiate in earnest, signaling that Ukraine refuses to be defeated and possesses the resources to continue fighting.

Operation Spiderweb: Global Air Base Vulnerability to Drone Attacks

Ukraine’s recent drone attacks, particularly Operation Spiderweb, have revealed a critical vulnerability for air bases worldwide, a discovery that should cause concern among military leaders globally.

The attack demonstrated that even seemingly secure air bases, previously thought protected by measures like electrified fences and guard posts, are susceptible to threats from the skies. The Ukrainian intelligence service (SBU) managed to sneak large numbers of drones deep inside Russia by transporting them in wooden cabins via truck and launching them remotely. This audacious tactic allowed them to strike targets thousands of miles away, highlighting how cheap, ubiquitous drones can be easily modified for military use and pose a significant threat.

The implications of this demonstrated vulnerability are far-reaching:

• If Ukraine can infiltrate major air bases in a highly controlled state like Russia, it raises concerns about the security of other nations’ air bases, such as U.S. air bases against Chinese drones, Indian bases against Pakistani drones, or South Korean bases against North Korean drones.
• This new reality necessitates a massive investment in counter-drone systems by militaries.
• The effectiveness of these drone attacks suggests that spending on conventional manned weapons systems may increasingly be seen as a waste, drawing a parallel to the obsolescence of cavalry in the 1930s or battleships in 1941.

Operation Spiderweb, despite not being a decisive blow, showed the immense cost-effectiveness of drone warfare, with swarms of relatively inexpensive Ukrainian drones potentially inflicting billions of dollars in damage on sophisticated Russian aircraft. This tactical innovation, driven by Ukraine’s need to compensate for manpower deficits and ammunition shortages, underscored their ability to disable enemy aircraft on the tarmac rather than solely attempting to shoot down missiles in flight.

Operation Spiderweb: Ukraine’s Drone Warfare and Global Implications

Ukraine’s innovative use of drone warfare has directly resulted in significant damage to the Russian military, particularly highlighted by Operation Spiderweb.

Key aspects of this damage and its implications include:

• Targets of Attack: During Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine launched a surprise drone attack against five Russian air bases, two of which were located thousands of miles away in the Russian Far North and Siberia. The targets reportedly included Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers, as well as A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft.
• Extent of Damage Claimed: President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Operation Spiderweb “destroyed or disabled a third of the bombers Russia has been using to launch long-range cruise missiles against Ukraine”. However, it is noted that there is no independent confirmation yet of the exact damage.
• Cost-Effectiveness of Damage: The operation showcased the immense cost-effectiveness of drone warfare, as swarms of Ukrainian drones, which likely cost tens of thousands of dollars to build in total, might have inflicted an estimated $2 billion of damage on Russia’s sophisticated aircraft.
• Strategic Vulnerability Exposed: The attack “revealed a vulnerability that should give every general in the world sleepless nights” for air bases globally. It demonstrated that even air bases thought to be secure are susceptible to threats from cheap, ubiquitous drones that can be easily modified for military use. Russian military bloggers even compared the attack to Pearl Harbor, suggesting it might signal the “obsolescence of once-dominant weapons systems: battleships in 1941, manned aircraft today”. This vulnerability necessitates a “massive investment in counter-drone systems” and implies that spending on conventional manned weapons systems may increasingly be seen as wasteful.
• Ukrainian Ingenuity and Context: This damage reflects Ukraine’s strategy to “make up for its manpower deficit by developing a world-leading drone industry”. Faced with dwindling ammunition for their Patriot air-defense systems, Ukrainians demonstrated tactical ingenuity by finding a way to “disable the aircraft that launch Russian missiles while they are still on the tarmac,” rather than solely attempting to shoot down missiles in flight.
• Broader Implications: The targeting of these bombers, which are designed to launch both conventional and nuclear weapons, could “undermine nuclear stability”. The attack is also seen as a “high-pressure tactic needed to persuade Putin to negotiate in earnest,” signaling Ukraine’s resolve to continue fighting and its refusal to be defeated.

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By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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