“If you fail, intensify what you are doing in some vague hope that you will finally succeed” continues to be the EU doctrine, Martin Jay writes.
It’s hard to fathom what is the logic behind the EU’s top diplomat’s statement or what is more shocking – the fact that he is disturbed by its thrust, or that he needs to underline it.
Many G20 diplomats are more concerned with their own national interests than punishing Russia with economic sanctions for attacking Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell actually stated this. He then went on to claim the West was being accused of double standards and had failed to win a “battle of narratives” in relation to Ukraine.
“The global battle of narratives is in full swing and, for now, we are not winning,” Borrell wrote on a recent blog post describing his participation in the recent meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Indonesia which was marked by no real breakthroughs and a tantrum from the U.S. secretary of state who refused to be seen with Russia’s foreign minister.
But perhaps Borrell’s answer to solve the wrangle is unsurprising, as it follows the EU’s doctrine on practically everything it fails at. If you fail, intensify what you are doing in some vague hope that you will finally succeed. This is what the EU does when it loses referendums – and then asks for a second one – and loses, in general, political support, which it counters with becoming even more undemocratic and taking power from member states.
Remarkably, whilst admitting that the campaign isn’t working, the solution, he said, is to “engage further to refute Russian lies and war propaganda.”
But the real killer blow which has stunned us all followed:
Some G20 diplomats, Borrell reckoned, were more concerned about “the consequences of the war for themselves” than in going after the supposed culprit.
No shit.
To give an example of just how deluded, out of touch and completely tone deaf, politically, the EU is, consider this comment and how it is framed. The EU chief is miffed that member state governments of the 26 nation bloc are actually concerned about runaway inflation, spiralling poverty and social unrest due to the West’s policies targeting Moscow. Incredible.
But just to take this idea further – that the EU is not an irony free zone – there was more to come. On 12th July the EU told journalists that there were more migrants expected to come from Africa and the Middle East, following the consequences of a monumental food crisis hitting these two regions due largely to wheat not reaching these regions. Naturally, the insinuation is that the wheat blockade is entirely down to Putin who has said he would allow shipments to leave the port of Odessa only if the Ukrainians demined the area.
Borell’s rant is disturbing on so many levels. Not least of all, is that his own blog’s blithering reveals how useless and ineffective the EU is at big policy decisions, which, time after time, member states won’t leave to Brussels. Amazing how this ‘diplomat’, who some could argue is a failed Spanish politician, has no grasp whatsoever on the fundamental of politics. A recent study in the same week in Austria revealed that over 55 percent of those polled, didn’t think the war in Ukraine “was worth” it, it meant higher food prices in shops there.
Perhaps Borell would prefer it that EU citizens actually starved so as to continue the West’s entirely ill-conceived and rushed strategy in Ukraine. As many EU countries still live day to day on Russian oil and gas – while others start to panic over the main oil pipeline being closed for ten days for maintenance – Borell’s ramble only highlights how confused the EU is, while citizens of EU countries themselves start to join the dots up. As for the politicians themselves in the member states who are “more concerned” for their own people, economies and general welfare than “punishing” Putin, surely this is a lesson for the EU chief himself in the dark art of politics. Working for the EU and earning an obscene salary, not to mention being immune from prosecution, has perhaps tainted or distorted his views on what democracies – or neoliberal western elites who run them – are actually supposed to stand for. Given that he is a product of this model, it is surprising that he is so sensationally ignorant of the doctrines that they espouse.
