I’ve been writing nonstop about the Ukraine war ever since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, but I confess that it took coming to Europe and meeting with politicians, diplomats and entrepreneurs here for me to fully grasp what happened. You see, I thought Vladimir Putin had invaded Ukraine. I was wrong. Putin had invaded Europe.
He shouldn’t have done that. This could be the biggest act of folly in a European war since Hitler invaded Russia in 1941.
I only fully understood this when I got to this side of the Atlantic. It was easy from afar to assume — and probably easy for Putin to assume — that eventually Europe would reconcile itself to the full-scale invasion Putin launched against Ukraine on Feb. 24, the way Europe reconciled with his 2014 devouring of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, a remote slice of land where he met little resistance and set off limited shock waves.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
He points out the things that have happened in a short period time: Europeans adopting sanctions that also hurt them. European nations throwing their borders open to Ukranian refugees. Sweden and Finland applying to join NATO. Germany banging a uey and rearming. He didn't mention that there has been discussions about forming a European army, but that may be coming so long as the Russians pose the threat that they do.
It would be nice to think that Friedman's overconfidence had taken a dent too deep to bang out.
ReplyDeleteAs SecDef Austin pointed out -- with a forthrightness and courage that are almost never seen today -- any good outcome requires Russia to be reduced to a condition in which she cannot aspire to project power. There is no direct way to do this, only indirect ones, which will take time that no one has and will cause collateral damage, one way or another, that no one can take responsibility for.
But Little Tommy had a epiphany, of sorts, so it's all good, right? ...Right?
I haven’t forgotten about “ Friedman Units” of time.
ReplyDeleteSo no, I don’t uncritically accept what he says.