Big resolutions, snappy perseverance slogans. This is currently the image Western politicians give to the public when it comes to the war in Ukraine. But wars are not only won with weapons. And if you want lasting peace, you have to think bigger.
“Ukraine must win this war,” warned Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. “This man must not stay,” said Joe Biden in front of the Warsaw City Palace as a target. Former Federal President Joachim Gauck also used yesterday’s Unity Day celebrations to issue a rallying cry to his compatriots: “Putin is pricing in the fears of the Germans in his planning. It’s an element of his warfare. We need a clear realization: that fear makes small eyes, drives us to flee. And escape is what we cannot afford.”
If wars were won with big intentions and snappy perseverance slogans, Ukraine would long since have been freed from its Russian invaders and Putin would be sitting before the war crimes tribunal.
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But it is not like that. The history of wars is always a history of noble resolutions and their pitiful failure. After 1945, the West in particular, even if no one wants to hear that, was particularly great at failure:
The experience of the failed Western wars of intervention and liberation does not encourage us to capitulate in Ukraine, but it does warn us to mistrust the politicians’ slogans, which seem so certain of victory. Lasting peace requires more than heavy weapons. Even massive military budgets do not automatically produce the desired result. You can’t buy peace.
That is why – parallel to the support of the Ukrainian armed forces – the thinking about a European peace order should start now. The division of labor between the military and civilians can only work like this: the military fight their battles – of course also with heavy weapons. But the civilians Macron, von der Leyen, Scholz and Biden are responsible for civilian life the day after.
Vladimir Putin has probably decided the partial mobilization past his highest military leaders. In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy calls on the Russians to stop their President Vladimir Putin. what happened in the night
In another illegal act, Putin recognized the occupied Ukrainian territories of Cherson and Zaporizhia as independent states. The Finnish government wants to close the border to Russian tourists. The Finnish government wants to close the border to Russian tourists. You can find all the latest news about the war in Ukraine in the ticker.
The Russian occupiers have announced the first results of the mock referendums. The Ukrainian President announces the “liberation” of the occupied territories. Now Turkish President Erogan wants to talk to Putin about it. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
The prospect of a decade-long European war over bases, port cities and power lines is not a happy prospect. A new European peace order must also take the interests of the Russian Federation into account, as difficult as this is in view of the current incidents surrounding the annexed provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Cherson and Zaporizhia.
For America, Russia is the former system rival and today an economically weak and geographically remote opponent. After the implosion of the Soviet Union, Russia was an economically fruitful partner and a close neighbor for Germany. That’s what distinguishes German interests from American interests: you can’t escape your geography.
Gabor Steingart is one of the best-known journalists in the country. He publishes the newsletter The Pioneer Briefing. The podcast of the same name is Germany’s leading daily podcast for politics and business. Since May 2020, Steingart has been working with his editorial staff on the ship “The Pioneer One”. Before founding Media Pioneer, Steingart was, among other things, Chairman of the Management Board of the Handelsblatt Media Group. You can subscribe to his free newsletter here.
Conclusion: The lesson from history is twofold: Germany must not abandon the Ukraine and still has to think beyond it.
