Once again, we may be drawn into an absurd war, against those who should be our allies in other battles that are infinitely more important.
Indeed, it is utterly absurd to be portrayed as the defenders of a Ukrainian government as incoherent as the previous ones, unable to put forward State reconstruction programmes, and who in order to exist finds nothing better than to reassert that Russian, mother tongue of a significant proportion of the population, is no longer official national language.
So should we get indignant that Russia portrays itself as a defender of the rights of these minorities? Would we oppose the Dutch if they rushed to rescue the Flemings as a result of being forbidden by the Belgian Government from speaking their own language? And we, the French, wouldn’t we react if citizens were forbidden by the Swiss Government from speaking French?
If Ukraine does not want to give a decent status to its Russian-speaking population, it is only fair that they want to obtain it, and appeal to their neighbor Russia for help, where many of them had already sought refuge.
Let us not be caught up in speeches which say that Russia would next seize Poland and the Baltic countries, the reality is that they are without vulnerabilities since they have the full support of all Allies. Nor should we be deceived by those who claim that the frontiers of Europe are inviolable when it suits them and who had not opposed the secession of Slovakia, the partition of Yugoslavia or even the redrawing of the borders during the time of the birth of Kosovo!
Finally, the threat of conflict with Russia, in order to defend an incompetent Ukrainian Government, is all the more absurd that in a unified flank we still have many key battles to wage, along with the Russians.
Can we not see that fundamentalist terrorism is trying to organize itself into a single Islamist state, that would go from Nigeria to Chechnya, through Mali, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan? Can we not see that what is being played out with terrorism in Europe resonate with this same battle? Can we not see that the competencies of the Russian army in the fight against terrorism would serve us well in this major confrontation?
France must therefore get Europeans to buffer the influence deleterious here of those who, in the United States and Europe, particularly in Poland, continue to confuse Putin with Hitler. And also those, like in the governing bodies of NATO, who are happily inventing an imaginary enemy to justify their very existence.
It is urgent in the consultation with Russia to encourage our European partners to consider this country to be a potential ally and not an imaginary enemy. This would, in fact, be the only way of moving this country towards democracy.
Therefore it is also urgent to rethink our law on military programming. And especially our defense strategies.
France is one of the few countries in the world which has mastered nuclear deterrence, special operations, and the projection of conventional forces and being first on theatres of operations. Furthermore, it is the only country in Europe that has a nuclear aircraft carrier. But its defense effort is not adapted to the nature of threats in the future, and has been declining since 1995 (including a 30 per cent decline in members of the armed forces over the last 20 years). Operation Serval in Mali has revealed the shortfalls of our surveillance equipments (drones), logistics (carriers), and in-flight refueling, where some of our equipments have been in service for more than fifty years! When we have been spending improper sums of money, for far too long, keeping production lines humming for the Rafale, for the sole benefit of the company that is making it.
All this would need a thorough rethinking. With great urgency. For this to happen, high priority should be given to debating in Parliament our view of the world and its threats. Fine debate. Much more interesting and important than all the areas of concern of our political class today.
j@attali.com