On September 27, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain assured his nation in a radio message that Britain did not intend to embroil itself in “a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.”
Two days later, on 29 September 1938, the “faraway country” that was refusing to allow Hitler’s Germany to redraw the border between them as it wanted, ceded the territory the Nazis were demanding in the Munich Agreement Chamberlain brokered.
Czechoslovakia would soon be dismembered, and in less than a year, “the people of whom we know nothing” were bombing London.
So we got to know them pretty well.
But, of course, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio bluntly reminded us about Ukraine a week ago (17/8):
– It’s not our war!
I don’t know how Rubio chooses wars and enemies; indeed, it’s not even clear which countries the American administration he serves considers friends and which enemies.
What is certain it that he doesn’t share French President Macron’s view that:
– Putin is a predator. An ogre at our gates. He needs to keep eating to ensure his own survival.
Macron explained that “Since 2007-2008, President Vladimir Putin has rarely kept his word,” while “he has constantly been a force for destabilization. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power” (LCI interview, 19/8).
If Rubio is right, then perhaps it makes sense for the US government to offer Putin a dignified way out, so the war can end.
But if Macron is right, then the US government is engaging with the wrong war and the wrong enemy and will seek the wrong peace.
For the simple reason that in a war, you don’t need to know everything about everyone involved to understand what’s going on. You just need to recognize the most dangerous party.
And, to date, I haven’t heard it said by anyone anywhere that Ukraine poses a threat to world peace or European security.
Rather, most of the people I can think of share Macron’s analysis (in one way or another…).
It’s just that, ultimately, in international affairs, it’s one thing to be right and another to have it acknowledged.
In this case, democratic Europe is making the most compelling arguments, but it lacks the power to impose them on an unstable America.
So Putin can play his games unhindered in a war that’s increasingly his own.
