One of the main lessons emerging from the battlefields of Ukraine is the duty to avoid sweeping historical generalizations, while at the same time being attentive to the spirit of the period and the prevailing moods in it.
In recent weeks, the public discourse has dominated the analogy between Britain's France's submissive conciliation in the face of Hitler's brutal challenge to world order in the 1930s - and Europe's attitudes toward Vladimir Putin's challenge to Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity.
And here, in contrast to the poorly remembered Munich conference of September 1938, a broad and cohesive European front has been formed in the last week, working tirelessly - in both government and private spheres - to set a daily price tag that exacerbates Moscow's aggression.
Against this background, of the rise of Europe to the center of the stage, the continuing weakness of the American bishop stands out.
The plenum of the UN voted by a large majority in favor of condemnation of Russia; Israel supported // Credit: Reuters
In contrast to the dominant role played by the United States in the bulk of the crises and conflicts that have plagued international skies since it became a superpower, at the end of World War II - in the war before us it found itself trailing, in hesitant and graded steps, following its European partners led by Boris Johnson and Olaf Schultz Demonstrating aggressive and decisive leadership, which greatly overshadows the feathered American eagle.
Indeed, the Biden administration, which from the outset decided to focus on the interior front, reacted slowly to the escalating Ukrainian crisis, forcing it to relinquish its early belief that the process of disengagement from friction and war could continue and converge within American space.
It so happened that the White House was slowly being sucked, and against its will, into adopting a strategy of escalating economic punishment, in the face of the exacerbating Russian threat not only to the very existence of Ukraine but also to the pro-Western orientation of most Central and Eastern countries (except Belarus). , On which the Kremlin tried to terrorize through the elimination of a sovereign and legitimate political entity.
In the end, Washington aligned itself with London, Berlin and Paris, but in a careful and controlled manner.
Prominent expression of the deteriorating status of the United States is given in President Biden's annual speech on the state of the nation before the two houses of Congress, which was published yesterday.
The vote against Russia at the UN, Photo: AP
Alongside the announcement of the closure of American airspace to flights from Russia (and here too Biden followed Canada and European countries), the president stated that Russia's control encountered a powerful wall, but acknowledged that this focus of inspiring determination was the Ukrainian people, and implicitly - not its own government.
Indeed, alongside the harsh condemnation he voiced for all of Moscow's crimes, and alongside the support he gave to the package of far-reaching economic sanctions imposed on Russia at the initiative of Europe - the real stick carried by the Oval Office tenant was hollow.
For, he again explicitly ruled out the use of the option of "hard power" (or even of strategic moves that do not involve direct military intervention).
In short - it was a pale and gray speech, which avoided an appropriate specific response to the Russian escalation on the ground, and to the rising hysteria of Moscow, which does not hesitate to conjure up doomsday weapons as a desperate means of sowing fear and panic among the coalition facing it.
Indeed, even the repeated use of the apocalyptic scenario of a nuclear confrontation did not lead the 46th President to try to project an image of a hegemonic superpower, ready to return from the frost and lead Moscow's axis of containment, enforcement and punishment.
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