We reported yesterday on the number of high casualty global conflicts that the US media and government didn’t bother to report on much.
But the Ukraine is different. These people are special because of their heart and commitment to democracy.
So you have to suffer for them. Even though they’re going to lose the war anyway.
Emmanuel Macron has warned that Europe must become more independent for its own defence and to ensure energy supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The French president said the conflict had “changed the era” across the continent and that he would be calling a summit of European leaders next week to discuss how to address the “unprecedented challenge” it created.
In a 14-minute address on prime-time television, he warned France faced upheaval and higher prices and that the country and its European partners had to invest to wean themselves off Russian gas and become self-sufficient in energy production as well as address defence issues and questions about food production.
“We can no longer depend on others to feed us, care for us, inform us, finance us,” Macron said. “We cannot depend on others to defend us, whether on land, at sea, under the sea, in the air, in space or in cyberspace. In this respect, our European defence must take a new step forward.”
He added: “War in Europe no longer belongs in our history books or schoolbooks, it is here, before our eyes. Democracy is no longer considered an unquestionable system, it is questioned, before our eyes. Our freedom, that of our children, is no longer a given.
“To this brutal return of tragedy in history, we must respond with historic decisions.”
However, Macron warned there was economic pain to come; the war would hit French agriculture, industry and all economic sectors dependent on the import of raw materials or export of goods to Russia and Ukraine, he said.
“The rise in the price of petrol, gas, raw materials will have consequences on our spending power; in future, the price of a tank of petrol, the heating bill, the cost of certain products risks being even higher. Faced with these social and economic consequences, I have but one aim: to protect you.”
This fits comfortably into the global warming austerity agenda. At least in theory.
However, if you send your population into austerity and purposefully lower your production output when you’re in the middle of a world war, you’re probably not making very good decisions.