On 24 February 2022 Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, following a war that started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea. However, what it was supposed to be a piece of cake ended up being a dreadful war that three years later is still going on. Russia has lost a lot of soldiers, tanks, planes and a lot of money due to the sanctions that the EEUU, the EU and most of the Western countries applied to the Neo Tsarist Russia. With the access to the US Presidency of Donald Trump things have however changed drastically as the 47th POTUS sides now with Putin instead of President Zelenski who was mistreated, vilified and humiliated in his visit to the White House on February 28th, 2025. On top of that all US aid to Ukraine was suspended on March 4.
Will Europe be able to sustain the war effort in Ukraine after the withdrawal of the US aid? The EU has enough money to do it and the Armies of France, Germany and the UK, and of the biggest countries of the EU are in numbers and technology –at least on paper- more powerful that the US, Russian or Chinese Armies taken isolated. Nevertheless the only problem is: would the Europeans leaders dare? Or will they keep accepting the submission to the US, as they have been doing since 1945? Something hard to swallow when, for the first time the US since 1914 the US are not in the same side of Europeans and defend isolationism under the Trump’s regime.
Where does the European psychological submission to Washington come from? Let’s go back in time a it all goes back to World War I when started what we could call THE SUICIDE OF EUROPE.
Weren’t we done with war?
Ukrainian war is especially shocking because for 80 years Europeans we have been convinced that we were done with war. Something understandable looking at dreadful images of the Great War of 1914-1918 and of World War 2, the two tragic holocausts of the first half of the 20th century that destroyed Europe. So no wonder we panic at the idea of getting involved again in a war. Certainly, as the Ukraine situation is bringing us back to some of the darkest moments of our history, it is therefore time to reopen our history books and try to understand how was it possible that in thirty years, from 1914 to 1945, the mighty European Nation-States collapsed and disappeared from the World Front Stage?
World War I was by no means apocalyptic. May be to this day the worst war in Human history, mainly because it was the first “total war”, meaning that every nation-state involved dedicated all resources, material and human, to exterminate the adversary. In July 1914 most of all Europeans were more than happy to go to a war towards a more than hatred enemy, thinking that they had such a powerful army that it was going to be a very short war in the name of nationalist revenge, sustained by a deeply rooted xenophobic narrative nationally promoted that led in France, for instance, to the assassination of the Socialist leader Jean Jaurès (1859-31 July 1914) simply because he was a pacifist.
This s why the great Belgian singer Jacques Brel (1929-1978) asked himself in his beautiful and moving song “Why they killed Jaurès” (Pour quoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?), released in 1977, in what was his last album, simply called “BREL”, before dying from cancer a few months later. Let’s read the lyrics to understand.
Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?
Ils étaient usés à quinze ans
Ils finissaient en débutant
Les douze mois s'appelaient décembre
Quelle vie ont eu nos grand-parents
Entre l'absinthe et les grand-messes
Ils étaient vieux avant que d'être
Quinze heures par jour le corps en laisse
Laissent au visage un teint de cendres
Oui notre Monsieur, oui notre bon Maître
… Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?
Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?
… On ne peut pas dire qu'ils furent esclaves
De là à dire qu'ils ont vécu
Lorsque l'on part aussi vaincu
C'est dur de sortir de l'enclave
Et pourtant l'espoir fleurissait
Dans les rêves qui montaient aux yeux
Des quelques ceux qui refusaient
De ramper jusqu'à la vieillesse
… Oui notre bon Maître, oui notre Monsieur
Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?
… Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?
… Si par malheur ils survivaient
C'était pour partir à la guerre
C'était pour finir à la guerre
Aux ordres de quelques sabreurs
Qui exigeaient du bout des lèvres
Qu'ils aillent ouvrir au champ d'horreur
Leurs vingt ans qui n'avaient pu naître
Et ils mouraient à pleine peur
Tout miséreux oui notre bon Maître
Couverts de prêles oui notre Monsieur
… Demandez-vous belle jeunesse
Le temps de l'ombre d'un souvenir
Le temps du souffle d'un soupir
Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?
Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?
ENGLISH TRANSLATION of “JAURÈS”
They were worn up at fifteen years old
They were finishing while beginning
The twelve months were named December
What kind of life did our grandparents have?
Between the absinth and the high masses
They were old before being
Fifteen hours a day, the body on a leash
Leaves to the face an ash like complexion
Yes our Sir, yes our kind Master
Why did they kill Jaurès?
Why did they kill Jaurès?
One cannot say they were slaves
But to say that hey have lived
When you start defeated like that
It’s hard to come ou of the enclave
And though hope was flourishing
In the dreams which were going up to the eyes
Of the few who were refusing
To crawl until the old age
Yes our kind Master, yes our Sir
Why did they kill Jaurès?
Why did they kill Jaurès?
If by misfortune they survived
It was to go to war
It was to end at war
Under the orders of some swordsman
Who was demanding half-heartedly
That they go open in the field of horror
Their twenties which didn’t have the chance to be born
And they died in full fear
All miserable, yes our kind Master
Covered with field horsetails, yes our Sir
Ask yourself pretty youth
The time of the shadow of a memory
The time of the blow of a sigh
Why did they kill Jaurès?
Why did they kill Jaurès?
Jaurès was absolutely right, but he could not prevent the disasters that militarism brought to Europe. War lasted 4 and half long years, left 16 million dead and 20 million wounded, many of the crippled for life.
For understanding the horror of World War I, besides the Brel’s song, let me give you some recommendations. From the victors side: the Movies “A Very Long Engagement” (Un long dimanche de fiançailles) of Jean Pierre Jeunet, released in 2004 and “Merry Christmas” (Joyeux Noël) of Christian Carion Released in 2005, and based on true events. More recently the spectacular movie 1917, a Sam Mendes film released in 2019.
And finally, as I guess you are developing a taste for reading, I would recommend you to read Pierre Lemaitre’s Novel “The Great Swindle” (Au revoir là haut) that enabled the author to receive in 2013 the most prestigious French Litterary price, the “Prix Goncourt.”
From the German perspective I will recommend you the great pacifist novel of Erich von Remarque (1898-1970) All Quiet in the Western Front (1929). You can read it or see one of its movie versions: 1930, 1979 y 2022. Impressive!!!!
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The suicide of the Great War was not only an unending massacre that left Europe in ruins, but also had dreadful consequences as it led to the abrupt end of Liberalism and the return of authoritarian regimes, dreadful dictatorships that started with Bolshevik Russia, and continued with Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany, that led the world to war again with the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and World War 2.
By the way, as it is impossible to understand the Russian Revolution, the Dictatorships of Mussolini and Hitler or if you do not grasp the social consequences of the expansion of big capitalism and the rising of “the Social question”, a large part of the text of Teaching Guide 6 (pages 127-139) is dedicated to this crucial aspect, including the “democratic solution” to the problem unexpectedly invented by US President F.D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
New Deal would lead to the Welfare State Model, consolidated in the UK in 1942 by William Beveridge.
Something especially important considering the actual resurgence of inequalities worldwide, as a result of the Neoliberal policies started by the Western States in the 1980’s decade. Consider that this huge effort to help the poorer classes of our opulent societies has been one of the main causes why we have not had a war in Europe for 80 years. Now we have a war risk because Trump is governing on the name of the oligarchs.
Should Europe leave Putin and Trump control the world?
When we are entering Teaching Guide 6 ("The Suicide of Europe") we are facing an unending War in Ukraine. Thre years have already passed since on Thursday 24 of February 2022 Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion. It was supposed to be a very short war. A Blitzkrieg. A Walkover. And now we realize that Putin has brought back war to Europe. A complete strange notion for all those born after 1945.
80 years later we realize that what initially looked like a conflict between two states, appears now more like a wider conflict between the West and the East. Why? Because Putin does not want Ukraine to go West for joining the EU and even NATO. And because for him Ukraine is a part of Russia. First because Kiev was the first Russian Capital. It was the head of the “Kievan Rus”, the first East Slavic State.
And second because Ukraine was one of the founding members od the USSR on December 30, 1922, and signed its dissolution in December 1991.
It is true that we Westerners did make a huge a mistake not realizing that Putin in Ruyssia has done a great job. After reaching power in 2000 after the disastrous government of Yeltsine that left the USSR in the hand of a few avid oligarchs, his priority was is to give back the Russians their pride, after one decade of humiliation. And it is for sure that Russia now is one of the leading powers in the World, while we Europeans are not.
But let’s point out that Putin also committed a huge mistake wanting to get back to the USSR times, under Stalin, when Russia was almighty. And also because, considering that we Europeans we are mostly concerned about how to keep our comfortable lives, he was sure that through Russian gas and oil production, he could buy us. This is why he was so confident about Ukraine invasion. He thought that we would not give a damn about Ukranians as our priority is to live well.
Putin’s third big mistake was about Ukranians themselves as he considered they would consider him a saviour. In fact in 2014 they had accepted with no problem the annexation of Crimea, and this is why he thought that they would accept that the majority of Ukranians would love to be bach at the mighty Russian motherland. He did not realize that since the Orange Revolution (November 2004 to January 2005) the majority of Ukranians do not feel Russians, they consider themselves Europeans. And this explains the almost unanimous reaction of the European States against Putin’s aggression.
And this is why most of them are willing to defend their country to the last soldier. The national narrative that Putin thought was inexistent and it is clearly jeopardizing a war that the new Tsar believed was not going to last long because he was convinced that most of Ukrainian population would welcome Russian soldiers as their saviours from a corrupt and “nazi” regime. The problem is that he was misinformed. It is only natural that after 25 years in power Putin only hear what he wants to hear.
Unfortunately for him he has in front the Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski a Jew, that studied law, speaks fluent Russian and is a great communicator as he has worked like a comedian from 1997 to 2018, before entering politics and becoming Ukraine’s Prime Minister on the 20 of Mai 2019. Putin did not consider Zelenski as a problem, until the latter, instead of fleeing became the head of the fierce Ukranian resistance, and has become a National hero for more than 90% of Ukrainians. The result of Putin’s invasion is that Ukraine would never be Russian again.
Putin’s fate in Ukraine was most uncertain, at least until Donald Trump saved him...
It’s about democracy and freedom
Let’s remember that Donald Trump has the dubious privilege of being the first POTUS in office despite having been condemned by a Jury of his peers for 24 felonies. So why should he care about defending a democracy that he tried to subvert on January 6, 2021 encouraging an attack on the US Congress.
In fact the War is about a model of society and civilization. Between liberal democracies and democratic dictatorships called “democraturs”, like the one that exists in Russia, where Vladimir Putin has been in power since 2000 and since then he has developed an illiberal democracy where power has no limits, information is controlled by the state and dissidents are poisoned, like Alexander Litvinenko, or put in jail like Alexei Navalny, the three young women integrating the Pussy Riot punk-rock group, Vladimir Kara-Murza or Maria Ponomarenko. For denouncing the war. Or the Special operation as Putin named it.
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Should Europe leave Trump and Putin have their way? Should we accept the humiliation of submission to keep our relatively comfortable lives? Should we renounce to the Rule of Law and accept dictatorship and tyranny of oligarchies?
A great opportunity for Europe
The only positive part on this disaster is that Trump is pushing Europe not only to rearmament but to become again a player in the international field. Something Europeans so far has not psychologically prepared for. But after 80 years of retreat let’s hope that European Governments will react sending excellent weapons to Ukraine, spending more money in our armies and adopting economic sanctions against Putin’s regime and his bunch of oligarchs, disregard the fact that they affect severely our economies. How so? Because, simply put, Putin has helped us to realize that our whole liberal democratic way of life is in danger. Let’s remember again the old proverb: “Si vis pacem para bellum.”
