Europe should thank Putin

If Europe ever does become united, it’ll be courtesy of Vlad Putin, not Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman or Konrad Adenauer. For Putin has kindly reminded Europe that she must either perish or stand united in defence.

Defence isn’t just planes, tanks, and missiles. Nor is it just warships, artillery and swarms of soldiers.

Defence starts with resolve and courage, and Europe has been short of these commodities throughout the post-war years. Like a little girl feeling lost without her mother, Europe has been clinging to America’s apron strings – America will provide, has been the infantile battle cry.

Now America herself is suffering from diminishing amounts of those commodities, as is evident from her position on the Ukraine and Israel. Hence the US allows, or rather pretends to allow, her eternal conflicts between hawks and doves to be resolved by bean counters.

If defending Europe through NATO’s good offices used to be understood as the sacred duty of the Leader of the Free World, and also the strategic necessity of counterbalancing Russia’s power, suddenly it has become a matter of balance sheets. Instead of talking about tanks and missiles, US leaders now talk about dollars and cents.

Yet they are still Western politicians, and as such what they say isn’t necessarily what they mean. Biden’s and Trump’s rhetoric on these subjects is different, but one can detect a similar erosion of testicular strength underneath.

Hence all this talk about negotiations, ‘red lines’, reluctance to ‘humiliate Putin’, fear of ‘Russia’s disintegration’. Hence also the increasingly niggardly assistance to the Ukraine, and continuing refusal to supply ATACMS systems, F-16s, heavy tanks, long-range artillery and so forth.

One has to acknowledge that Putin’s ‘hybrid’ war has been much more successful than the usual kind. The non-stop bombardment of American airwaves with threats of nuclear annihilation, fake stories of Ukrainian Nazis, Putin’s commitment to ‘traditional values’ and other disinformation shrapnel is bearing fruit.

Job done – one can just see those ghouls smirking in Lubyanka and the Kremlin. They have been dismissing Europe in their calculations. Europe to them is a degenerate, defunct entity obsessed with homosexual/trans racial minorities on welfare. If European countries are too stingy to commit even a paltry two percent of GDP to defence, they aren’t even part of the conversation.

Neutralise America’s resolve, and Boris is your uncle. Stripped of the American umbrella, Western Europeans will be cowering in their underheated houses as Russia, led as she is by the muscle-bound Putin, gobbles up the eastern part, restoring Stalin’s empire to all its past glory.

The Russians can be forgiven for thinking that, for Europe has done nothing over the past 70 years even to hint at any testosterone content in its bloodstream.

The European Union may be the precursor of a single European state, but let’s be serious now: Europe isn’t really united, is it? Any fly on the wall during a talk between, say, Stoltz, Macron and Orbán would bust its wings laughing at any suggestion of pan-European unity.

So fine, things on the frontline haven’t quite gone according to Putin’s plan. The Russians failed to take Kiev in three days, and it’s reasonably clear they won’t be able to do so in three years either. But the hybrid war seems to have succeeded beyond their wildest imaginings.

The US talks tough (or not even, if you listen to the likely once and future president), but has practically cut off all military aid to the Ukraine. And Europe, who cares about that impo…

But hold on a second. The looming threat of barbaric invasion has suddenly made Europe flex its muscles and realise they haven’t completely atrophied. Europe stood up from its previous genuflecting stance and put some steel in its voice, if not quite yet in its spine.

One European leader after another has spoken of resisting Russian expansion with everything Europe has. Which is significant: Europe’s population is four times the size of Russia’s, and the combined GDP of European countries is 12 times greater.

European military technology is two generations ahead of Russia’s, and most European armies are better trained and more professional than the Russian gang of murderers, looters and rapists. European leaders have begun to mention such facts ex officio, and one, Manny Macron, even spoke about the possibility of putting European boots on the Ukrainian ground.

Nor is it just talk. European countries have started to increase their supplies of ordnance for the Ukraine, and the danger of Ukrainian guns falling silent is diminishing. Meanwhile, the European countries within immediate range of Russian tanks, such as Poland, Scandinavia and the Baltics, have stepped up their armament programmes and troop training. Finland, Sweden and Denmark are even discussing the possibility of conscription.

Suddenly, that rotten Hungarian apple apart, Europe is indeed beginning to look united. Where the EU has failed, Putin might have succeeded.

Should this tendency continue, as I hope it does, the US may face a stark choice between either recovering her masculinity or losing her status as Leader of the Free World, with all the associated benefits. Meanwhile, though still short of resolve, the US has vast reserves of effrontery, as demonstrated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

In common with many Jewish American politicians, especially those inclining leftwards, Schumer treats Israel as a pet that can sit, fetch and lie down on his orders.

In that spirit, Schumer has demanded that Israel hold a snap election and get rid of Netanyahu, who “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”.

Netanyahu, thundered Schumer, “has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”

In response, Israel’s ruling Likud party has explained to Schumer that Israel isn’t “a banana republic” and will not be spoken to in that tone.

“Contrary to Schumer’s words,” said the government statement, “the Israeli public supports a total victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictates to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza.”

America should really wipe her glasses and see more clearly who are her friends and especially who are her enemies. Such improved clarity of vision would enable her to do the right thing both in the Ukraine and Israel.

Perhaps she should ask Putin to threaten an imminent invasion, across the Bering Strait if not the Atlantic. Similar threats seem to have put some lead into Europe’s pencil, and I do hope it’s not just an appearance.