Better Late than Never or We Told You So

It’s been an axiom of The Torn Curtain 1991 that russia would never accept Ukraine’s independence proclamation of 1991 and the time will come when moscow will strike against Ukraine with the its age-old intention of capturing the country, subjugating the nation and erasing all vestiges of Ukrainian culture, language and religion.

Even that hasn’t been a kremlin goal that has been relegated to the past 30 or so years or the 21^st or 20^th centuries.

It’s been moscow’s mission for 1,000 years.

We’ve denounced the West’s decision of 80 years ago to accept russia as a trustworthy, democratic partner rather than strongly supporting the captive nations in their quest to free themselves of moscow’s yolk and become sovereign and independent.

We accepted reality that our arguments were for naught.

And then we see that the least likely contemporary national leader has uttered his own “mea culpa” or rather in French “ma faute.”

French President Emmanuel Macron admitted that France – and by association Europe and the free world – should have paid more attention to Eastern European countries that warned of the threat from russia.

Macron expressed this epiphany in a speech at the GLOBSEC forum in Bratislava, according to European Pravda and Reuters.

This is politically and historically significant because Macron has been one of the national leaders who believed in the goodness of moscow and the potential success of convincing putin to stop the war in Ukraine. He upheld this point of view even in the face of russia’s crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Macron emphasized that there should be no division between “Old Europe” and “New Europe.” referring to the long-standing disagreements between the EU’s eastern and western members, particularly over the Russian issue.

“Some said you had missed an opportunity to shut up. I think we also lost an opportunity to listen to you. This time is over," Macron said.

He was alluding to former French President Jacques Chirac’s statement in 2003 that Eastern European states that supported the United States and Britain in their decision to invade Iraq had missed a “good opportunity to shut up.”

The French President said russia had suffered obvious failures in the war against Ukraine.

“War is far from over but one thing is clear: Ukraine won’t be conquered. We can see that what was supposed to be a ‘special operation’ is already a geopolitical failure,” Macron said.

Earlier, Macron stated that Ukraine must be provided with “tangible and reliable security guarantees.”

He also emphasized that the West should do everything possible to help Ukraine conduct an effective counteroffensive since it “gives a chance to establish a lasting peace.”

We accept your confession. As your penance, provide Ukraine will all of your offensive and defensive air, land and sea weapons.