My Take | The West is reaping what it has sown in Ukraine and Palestine
Having failed in two of the biggest geopolitical challenges of the century, the same Western elites are doubling down by moving against China
For more than two years, we were told the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a challenge not only to Europe, but the West itself – and even a threat to the whole world by undermining fundamental political, security and moral principles.
A victory for Moscow would be an existential threat to civilisation itself. This is, they said, a global problem. And so, if you don’t join us in our fight against evil, you are evil, too.
Those “universal” messages warning against the new Hitler from Moscow were duly repeated, refined and amplified by the West’s leading media outlets. Now, though, those same holier-than-thou publications are running a very different message. There is a new party line from their paymasters.
The new headlines read: “The least bad deal for Ukraine: How to make a success of peace talks with Vladimir Putin – The key is robust security guarantees for Ukrainians”; “Trump’s push for Ukraine peace finds growing acceptance in Europe”; “Zelensky: I’ll give up Ukrainian territory to Russia to achieve peace: President says for first time that his country could cede land temporarily in exchange for protection of a ‘Nato umbrella’ ”.
To the last statement from the Ukrainian leader, the same British newspaper runs the following rhapsodic op-ed: “This is a political masterstroke by President Zelensky – Kyiv is signalling to Trump that it is willing to talk under the right conditions”.
It may be worth pointing out that the same or even better peace settlement could have been obtained less than a month after war broke out in late February 2022 if only the United States and Britain didn’t scupper it. So many lives and suffering could have been spared. But no, both countries and their European allies thought the war could be an opportunity to collapse the Russian economy and oust Vladimir Putin. The economy actually expanded after the initial shocks from Western economic warfare, and Putin became even more powerful and popular at home.
