But Biden spent much of this year, before his withdrawal from the presidential race, on the campaign trail. Now he is on a farewell tour. A new president will be elected on Nov. 5, and if his name is Donald Trump, there will be no slipstream for the Europeans to hide in. The canceled Ramstein conference would have been the perfect opportunity for Europe to at long last take the lead.
” The canceled Ramstein conference would have been the perfect opportunity for Europe to at long last take the lead.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz should have shown what the “Zeitenwende” (“turning point”) which Scholz declared following Russia’s invasion means for Europe as a whole. Together with France and Great Britain, he should have made clear statements to Putin: If you did not end your war of terror against Ukraine’s civilian population within 24 hours, they could have said, the range limits on the weapons being supplied to Ukraine will be lifted.
If that were not enough, it could have been added that Germany would supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine to help destroy the Russian army’s supply routes into the country. France and Great Britain are already supplying cruise missiles with the range needed to hit the Russian army’s supply lines and are apparently prepared to go down this path.
Opinion: Putin’s drone strategy shows the cracks in Russia’s war machine
Russia shot down one of its own drones — a large and stealthy S-70 — after it flew uncontrolled into Ukrainian territory in early October, sparking speculation about how Moscow lost control of this valuable asset so publicly. It’s an unforced error that will be keenly felt in Moscow, whose high
Fear and the desperate hope of being able to portray himself as a “peace chancellor” shortly before Germany’s federal election next year have become Scholz’s dominant motives. But “fear is the mother of all cruelty,” as Michel de Montaigne, the sixteenth-century French philosopher, put it. French President Emmanuel Macron has no doubt read Montaigne and understands that warning.
Instead of acting decisively at Ramstein, Scholz had a nice coffee with Biden, shortly before the U.S. president was awarded the special level of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. But that award ceremony was a moment that united Great Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S. merely in nostalgia, not in defining the decisive action and sense of purpose which Europe needs today.
Indeed, the ceremony recalled nothing so much as how Germany’s government behaved in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification, before the division of Europe was overcome, before the war in Ukraine. The old Europe of the Cold War sought comfort in the past and confidence in the solitary U.S. leadership that defined the era. Europeans forging their own decisions were rarely even an afterthought back then. For example, did no one even think of inviting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to the meeting in Berlin?
Biden’s flight back to Washington following the aborted Ramstein conference and the diminished meeting in Berlin’s Chancellery may take on an almost symbolic significance in the future: the last Atlanticist U.S. president for a long time bidding farewell to Europe. And the Europeans, without leadership and without the slightest idea of what lies ahead, waving goodbye to him, dreamily reminiscing about earlier times.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.
Friedrich Merz
Leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany
Friedrich Merz is the leader of the Christian Democratic Union of GermanyRead more
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Publish date : 2024-10-24 17:21:00
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