Ukraine, The EU, and Freedom
The EU Must Do More Than Watch and Wait
The Washington Post Board states the current circumstances of Putin’s War accurately. However, the bulk of this article is a product of half-blind "thinking". Yes, Ukraine, at present, faces a near term prospect of some kind of surrender. But such does not represent as honest analysis of the war or it current circumstances or opportunities. It too easily, too conveniently, exempts European leaders.
Ukraine, is part of Europe. "Membership" in the EU is not the dividing line, nor is "membership" in NATO. The difference between those lost in the East and those resisting being digested by the hungry maw of Putin, is best described by what Ukraine is fighting for. Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom, or more prosaically for their natural rights.
When this natural rights line is observed we can easily see that there are no lines between the EU's "Europe" and Ukraine. No lines between NATO membership and Ukraine. What Putin is attacking is the nature of freedom. He is describing the world he believes everyone should live in with each bullet fired, each missile launched, each child kidnapped.
The next steps should not, as the Post implies, await some utterance from Trump. The next step is Europe's own. And this step must be mobilization of their own armies in support of Ukraine. There is no such thing, as WP says, as a shortage of weapons. If more are needed, make more. Each day this does not occur is a reward for Putin, and a provocation to Putin to continue his malevolence.
Putin's hoisting of North Korean troops into the war merely signals his disdain for the EU leadership. Escalation as mockery. This same leadership will be learning to bend the knee to Putin if it does not discover that it too is on the Ukrainian side of these convenient "lines" if it continues to fail to act. And bonus, they will find their lives animated, more directly, by Putin’s ally, Kim.
Those people's who pride themselves on the thesis of "freedom" have performed poorly in Ukraine, and by failing to better prepare their people’s understanding of freedom. The time of convenient processes which preserved a kind of status quo ended with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The challenge of Putin’s War is not one of acquiring Ukrainian territory. It is a challenge to the very idea that people have a right to be free.
Failure to understand this will not be rewarded by a return to “convenient processes’.
It's time to change the narrative. This can only be done by taking concrete, tangible steps which competently inform Putin that his War is not winnable by Russia. Putin’s Russia is wounded and crawling towards Kyiv. Engaging in the steps necessary to move the EU from the bleachers to the field must begin without further delay.
Mobilize now.