WSJ: “If Mr. Biden and the Europeans don’t get Ukraine right, Europe’s future is finished.”
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Last week, we first posed the question: Is Europe toast?
We argued that Western Europe has dug itself two very deep holes by increasing its energy dependence on Russia … and by deprioritizing (and defunding) security & defense.
Neither of these holes are candidates for quick filling.
Over the weekend, following right on cue, the WSJ’s Dan Henninger opined:
If Mr. Biden and the Europeans don’t get Ukraine right, Europe’s future is finished.
Henninger provided the poignant historic backdrop:
World War II was fought largely because Europe was experiencing the indiscriminate murder of civilians under Nazi military doctrine.
Since coming out of the ruins in 1945, the collective European memory has sustained an aversion to allowing the reappearance of that horror on its soil.
But, it’s happening now, again.
(That horror) is being revived by Mr. Putin who is attempting the extermination of a people and the obliteration of their cities.
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The rub, as articulated decades ago by Donald Rumsfeld:
If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east.
Specifically, according to Henninger, Rumsfeld was referring to Poland and the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the NATO members that for years warned France and Germany — and U.S. presidents — that Mr. Putin’s Russia was a clear and present danger.
It’s apparent that for all practical purposes, that message has largely fallen on deaf ears.
“Old Europe” (Great Britain, Germany, France) was geographically buffered from Russia by, in Rumsfeld’s words, the Eastern flank (i.e. “New Europe”).
Falsely comfortable, Western Europe paid “yeah, yeah, yeah” lip service to the threat while refocusing its attention and resources on social spending and, more recently, climate control.
Now, as Obama’s spiritual advisor Rev. Wright would say: “The chickens are coming home to roost”.
If Ukraine falls to Putin, Poland’s geographic buffer is gone.
Then what?
Henninger poses the central immediate question:
What will old Europe do in the next four weeks, as Mr. Putin launches cruise missiles from Russian territory or the Black Sea into apartment buildings, schools and hospitals across Ukraine?
The still sleepy-eyed Western European nations seem comfortable that Putin’s invasion will fail in Ukraine … or, that Putin will simply stop at Ukraine’s borders … or that the U.S. will massively intervene to bail them out (for the third time in history).
In other words their strategy is to pass their tea, champagne or beer … and hope for the best.
Yipes.
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Flashback:
Remember when Saddam Hussein’s invaded Kuwait in August 1990
When George W. Bush mulled over whether to repel the Iraqi leader militarily or not, British PM Margaret Thatcher admonished Bush with the classic: “Remember, this is no time to go wobbly, George.”
Apparently, Boris Johnson, et. al., didn’t internalize the message.
This past weekend, British foreign minister Liz Truss said that Russian sanctions could be lifted if Russia withdraws from Ukraine and commits to end aggression there. Source
We’ll let you skate on unprovoked invasions, civilian carnage, and other war crimes.
If you just promise us that you won’t do it again, we’ll just turn the page and stay the course.
Very “Old Europe”, right?
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