Normally there is a lot of stress in times of war, and even panic when things are going the wrong way. However recently what we have seen is a very paradoxical situation in the context of the most dangerous ongoing war namely the Ukraine war. Amazingly, the closer the prospects of peace appear, the more some of the persons involved with the war appear to be panicking.
Ukraine has faced very difficult times recently in times of war as there have been several serious setbacks including loss of a large number of precious soldiers as well as loss of territory. So increasing prospects of peace must bring at last some relief even though peace may not be coming on encouraging terms. Indeed as far as common people of Ukraine are concerned, they may indeed be experiencing a sense of at least restrained relief at the increasing possibilities of the war ending soon. However even a sense of some limited relief is not visible in the context of President Zelenskyy. He appears to be more in panic in times of approaching peace than in any other recent times when Ukraine was experiencing big military reverses.
However in his case there is at least some reason for panic as peace would pave the way for ending martial law, for elections and return of democratic politics and those opposed to him as well as well as ordinary people are likely to raise quite a few difficult questions. What appears more difficult to understand are the increasing signs of several of Europe’s leaders becoming very panicky regarding the increasing prospects of early peace.
After all, a war that has resulted in the death or serious injury or disablement of nearly a million people, and had shown a tendency to go and on, now rather suddenly has the prospects of ending soon. Isn’t this a reason for big relief and happiness? But relief and happiness are exactly what appear to be missing in the context of the response of many of Europe’s top leaders. Why?
In fact the reasons for feeling not just some relief but in fact very big relief are very strong. More than any other ongoing war it is the Ukraine war that has been creating the possibility time and again of escalating or widening into a direct conflict between the two biggest powers and hence into a nuclear war, something that would be disastrous for the entire world but particularly so for some of the leading countries of Europe.
Surely the people should feel very big relief that this most horrible of all threats and dangers, to the extent that it could escalate from the Ukraine war, is likely to end soon.
However even the existence of such a very solid and big reason for feeling relief and happiness has not brought much of a smile to the face of many leaders of Europe.
In fact this threat being very serious the European leaders should have been working overtime to end this as early as possible by ending the Ukraine war for which there were opportunities earlier too. This they failed to do, instead agreeing to a role of prolonging the war. Now that by a fortunate turn of events the prospects of peace have increased suddenly, at least now belatedly they should try to lend a helping hand to the peace process.
Instead there is the strange spectacle of panic as peace approaches. Some prominent leaders have spoken even at this stage of sending their soldiers to Ukraine.
This strange response of some leaders is actually a reflection of the fact that all along they had taken a non-rational aggressive stand on this war that was not in the best interests of Europe and that was also not in the best interests of world peace. Even though the Biden team for its own reasons was being excessively aggressive, Europe should have had the good sense of trying to reduce this aggressiveness instead of fueling it further. The correct role for Europe should have all along been to try to end the war as early as possible, instead of sabotaging peace prospects, as at the time of the Istanbul initiative at a very, very early stage of this highly destructive war.
Having played a very wrong and aggressive role that harmed the interests of Europe as well as of world peace, these European leaders are unable to come to terms with recognizing their blunders. However there is no loss of honor if even costly mistakes once realized are admitted and corrective actions are taken. This is still possible and European leaders must henceforth become deeply committed to advancing peace prospects on the basis of common European security inclusive of Russia, and in addition of course with the ending of war they should also contribute as generously as possible to the reconstruction and rehabilitation effort in Ukraine.
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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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