Ukraine deluded and abandoned, but Europe pays the bill for US hypocrisy
Political correctness would force me to follow, on the Ukrainian case, the countless voices accusing Vladimir Putin of absolute evil, of retrograde imperialism, of anxiety for domination over Eastern Europe and – why not? – over the whole world. Instead I prefer to get out of this overcrowded chorus and find myself with the few (indeed very few) who harbor doubts and prefer to express more or less discordant opinions. And never mind if I am accused of senseless russophilia.
Among the few who leave the chorus, I limit myself to mentioning Pietro Senaldi. On February 22, the co-director of Libero expressed a thesis in his newspaper that I find largely acceptable. I don't think he is a sympathizer of Putin and the Great Mother Russia. Always having in mind our national interest, he confines himself to thinking in a cold and precise way on what is happening, after the head of the Kremlin officially recognized the independence of the two separatist republics which constitute the major casus belli – but certainly not the unique – between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
While being clear that Putin is an autocrat and certainly not a champion of liberal democracy, Senaldi wonders who benefits from this very dangerous crisis close to the European borders. And he puts forward the hypothesis, which has already been foreshadowed by others, that it is above all the United States that will benefit from it in this particular historical period. A president in serious trouble like Joe Biden, at the head of a tremendously divided country, is offered on a silver platter the right opportunity to get out of the corner and reposition himself in the center of the ring.
Senaldi also wonders, like so many others, what sense did the continuous expansion of NATO to the east have had (given that the Soviet Union no longer exists) and why the many alarm signals launched by the Russians in recent years have been punctually ignored, if not mocked. The explanation is not at all simple, although it is possible to hazard one that does not seem far-fetched to me.
Even after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR, Moscow continues to be perceived as the main adversary in Washington's political (and especially military) circles. Difficult to change habits. Although many analysts have told us that Biden carried out the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan because, following Donald Trump in this case, he finally realized, unlike Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama, that America's real mortal enemy , and of the entire West, is Communist China, not Russia.
The US and NATO have deceived the Ukrainian government with declarations of solidarity. However Biden immediately made it clear that he was not prepared to clash militarily with the Russians nor did he promise to send troops to the ground. Moreover, he cannot afford it, considering that a large part of the US public opinion (which does not love him) is aligned with isolationist positions. Free hand, therefore, to the Europeans, accustomed from time immemorial to staying under the covers, leaving the war duties to the Americans. And even criticizing them without hesitation when they bomb.
Now the usual sanctions are mounting, but one fact must be clear. The EU will suffer almost exclusively, and not the US which, on the contrary, could gain both in economic and political terms precisely from the sanctions. I wonder, for example, how one can criticize Germany for its alleged "shyness" when it is well known that Germans are essentially dependent on Russia for their energy supplies. The same goes for Italy, perhaps to an even greater extent, even if it does not seem that our politicians are fully aware of it.
Last but not least, it should be noted that so far Xi Jinping's China has adopted an attitude of great prudence on the Ukrainian question. So far, there is no sign of wanting to follow Putin in recognizing the separatist republics. On the contrary, Beijing's attitude has been rather ambiguous. It cannot be excluded that it is right to observe in order to play a mediating role. Disappointing Putin, but regaining points from a West that even considered it a mortal danger.
The hot water turns out to be noticed, once more, that the European Union has no strategy and is just getting by on a diplomatic and military level. Except that, in certain situations, getting by is not enough, nor is it enough for NATO to deploy ships and planes, risking a direct confrontation about which the leaders of the Alliance themselves have doubts. How to blame Senaldi, then, when he writes that "Europe can just fight the war with six buttons", since what it lacks most is not money and armies, but vision?
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL https://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/ucraina-illusa-e-abbandonata-ma-il-conto-dellipocrisia-usa-lo-paga-leuropa/ on Thu, 24 Feb 2022 03:45:00 +0000.