Nice stories don’t win wars. Without significant deliveries of weapons and real security guarantees the glorious narrative of unity and solidarity with Ukraine is wearing thin and rapidly approaching cynicism.
Comforting stories can help win elections. But if they are false they immobilize us, and prevent us from taking real action while Ukrainians continue to die for us
Ukrainians have performed miracles and repeatedly embarrassed the “experts.” We should be grateful to have such an ally, but instead of helping them win, we ask them to fight with one hand tied behind their back.
The survival of the rules-based system is in doubt. New hotspots are igniting all over the world. This is not the future we want to live in, but it is the future that is being built.
The fact remains that anything other than total restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty and security would invite Putin and the world’s tyrants to keep going, to keep crossing borders, to keep raping and murdering in order to achieve their aims.
There is little mystery about what can happen if we keep waiting for a miracle. Territories can be lost, countries can be occupied. There is no positive spin to this story, no happy ending, unless we choose to rewrite this script.
It’s tempting to hold back, leave it up to fate and pretend we can’t influence the outcome, but that’s no way to honor our historic responsibilities.
The definitive narrative will be written by historians. They will discuss our choices. If we fail, they will be harsh. They will wonder why we believed in the fiction we told ourselves and chose to ignore the facts on the ground. They will call it a tragedy, not a victory.
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