The war in Ukraine, European illusions and the role (leader) of the USA: the global balance in “The suspended world” (Solferino) by the reporter of the “Corriere”
I arrived in Donetsk in early March 2014. Putin had just annexed Crimea and was now planning the next step: to occupy Donbass and the strip along the Sea of Azov, from Mariupol to Odessa. Exact: 2014 plan is identical to 2022 minimum target, after failed assault on Kiev. Donetsk is a beautiful city, with an elegant, clean centre. In those March days there were still lights on the trees of the main avenues, on the facades of the theaters and restaurants. People seemed to worry above all about the cold and accelerated their pace to go home…».
Giuseppe Sarcina is one of the last great chroniclers. Accustomed to recounting wars, catastrophes, historical turning points, including economic ones, without yielding anything to ideology or prejudice, with a writing that is all facts that is difficult if not impossible to contradict because it transpires a total adherence to reality. Self in 2015 he left for the United States as a correspondent for the «Corriere» it is not only for the prestige of the position and for the interest of the work that awaited him. Pino – at the Corriere, where he has worked for 28 years, we call him that – foresaw that the American experience, first in New York and then in Washington, where he remained until a few weeks ago, would end up closing the open circle from the first war in Ukraine, which he had told as a reporter.
Those who did not understand what was about to happen were the European leaders. Who have long deluded themselves that they can delegate military defense to the United States, energy supplies to Russia, low-value-added manufacturing to China and India. Nobody in Europe really believed that Moscow would attack Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron tried to the last minute to change Vladimir Putin’s mind. In vain. The war on the eastern borders of the continent upset their plans: Scholz thought of continuing the policy of dialogue started by Merkel, Macron had declared NATO “brain dead”. Both had to painfully change their minds.
Even Joe Biden had set his first term on a very different strategy: continue the military withdrawal from Europe initiated by Obama and intensified by Trump; to involve the unruly Russia in the real confrontation that interested him, the one with China. Even Biden had to change his mind. But he did it in time; and he had the merit of understanding not only that Russia would attack, but also that Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine could resist. And if Europe’s concern is still not to humiliate Putin and offer him a way out, Biden’s America is still convinced that Putin should be weakened as much as possible, without excluding at all that war could create the conditions to oust him from the Kremlin .
Sarcina’s new essay — The suspended world. The War and American Hegemony in Europe (Solferino) — holds together the geopolitical analysis and the story of this year of war. The psychology of the protagonists, and the economic consequences of the conflict. The ups and downs of Western Europe, and the decision of the countries of north-eastern Europe – starting with the most important, Poland, but also the Baltic and Scandinavian countries – to now trust only the United States, pace Paris and Berlin.
The last chapter is dedicated to Italian foreign policy. Whether you like it or not, with Mario Draghi’s departure he has lost part of his authority. The author recounts the international debut of the first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, at the G20 in Bali. An appointment that didn’t go badly, not even with the Americans. Yet from Sarcina’s pages one consideration can be deduced: it would be a mistake for Meloni to rely exclusively on the relationship built with Washington in the name of Atlantic solidarity, neglecting the alliance with the European allies. Also because Joe Biden, behind the “soft” appearance, hides an angular personality.
Sarcina writes, in the light of his seven-year experience in the White House: «Many American politicians, whether they are governors of a state, deputies or senators, sooner or later, develop an evident superiority complex. This phenomenon, of course, is even more visible with presidents. It is as if a kind of “transference” were set in motion: the country’s world supremacy in military, economic and technological terms automatically places the holder of the White House in a dominant dimension, even in personal terms, with respect to all the other heads of state or government. Then everyone adds something about him. Donald Trump considers himself, in his words, “a person of a superior category and intelligence”; Biden considers himself the “most expert” statesman of the entire nation and, therefore, it goes without saying, of the whole world. Don’t be fooled by friendly tones, smiles, pats on the back. “We are the United States, nothing is precluded from us” Biden continually repeats and adds: “We are the leaders of the West”. As always, there is also a light, a moral reflection. The president explained it a few days after the Brussels summit to the paratroopers of the “82nd Airborne Division”, at the base of Rzeszow, a city about one hundred kilometers from the border with Ukraine, on the occasion of the visit to Poland, that of “Putin can remain in government”. The White House advisers had ordered the pizza which was served in the carton. “Joe” had introduced himself without a tie, in an unbuttoned blue shirt. He had sat in the mess with the soldiers. A few jokes, a few laughs and then the fervor: “We are, you are in the middle of an epochal clash; I don’t want to sound too philosophical, but that’s the way it is. It is a clash between democracy and the oligarchies. You are not here just to alleviate the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Something much bigger is at play here. Who will win between us and them? Between ours and their values?”.
If we don’t understand this, we don’t understand America.
February 10, 2023 (change February 10, 2023 | 21:11)
© Time.News