Seasoned U.S. journalist and commentator Patrick Lawrence is on the mark with his biting commentary today in Consortium News on the plight of “Europe’s neoliberal elites,” left stranded by President Trump’s steps to end the Atlanticists’ Ukraine war against Russia and forced to decide what to do on their own. It is an article better read than described, but to give our readers a flavor of the piece, consider Lawrence’s citation of the Irish-American Trinity College emeritus Tom Harrington’s comment on this scene, under the headline, “The Perils of Method Acting":
“If you are a chihuahua and you play a Doberman for many years on TV, you can forget you are actually a chihuahua. This can lead to much delusion when the director calls off the production.”
Lawrence adds: “I loved typing those lines just now and wish they were mine. These people are blowing bubbles. Neither Britain nor Germany—nor any other member of Ukraine’s European constituency—has the money, the military, or the domestic consensus to act consequentially in Kiev’s behalf. They have been supine clients of the U.S. for too long. In Tom Harrington’s terms, they are yelping chihuahuas.
“The Euros and their Canadian cousins in the neoliberal cause, a dozen top officials in all, gathered in Kiev Monday to put their money—so wastefully and unwisely—where their mouths are. European foreign ministers convened simultaneously in Brussels. And between them they considered sending Ukraine an additional €20 billion straight off the top—more coming is the implication—and a wide variety of additional sanctions—on energy, trade, financial services and so on—against the Russians.
“So: The killing must go on more senselessly by the day, and the European citizenry must continue to suffer, ditto.”
These European elites remind Lawrence of Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade “into the valley of death.” He quotes:
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said….
