Every day, the Monitor has a budget 鈥 a list of stories we plan to publish. The top story on today鈥檚 budget starts with these words: 鈥淔ormer middle-class housewife turned combat zone commander ...鈥 I was hooked.聽
I don鈥檛 really want to talk about the article. I want you to read it. It is a remarkable portrait of the front lines in Ukraine, and a view of the world often the Monitor alone provides. It has drones and hardship, jokes, and code names 鈥 like Splash, Pikachu, and Mechanic.聽
The code name for the housewife-turned-commander? Joy. This is not your ordinary war story.聽 聽