Today we watch Liz Truss being mocked by Lavrov while the British Prime Child is in Poland making a fool of his good old self (and of the country) as usual in scrambling meetings & travel with no preparation as Lavrov himself eluded to during the news conference. It is truly becoming a shocking reaction by western – so called – leaders in these crisis and the only one benefiting from these shenanigans is Putin’s Russia. I truly do not know who is advising these people or whether these are merely gut reactions for personal/domestic consumption or maybe it’s more simple than that; complete/utter incompetence. Irrespective of all theories about how we got here and where all this leads it is clear to me that the west has already lost every sense of credibility as a political power able to defend values and strategic interests when sacrifice is called for. There is no leadership, there is no plan and there is no way this western facade of an alliance can survive for much longer in this form; it would be a waste of time/effort. This is an outcome that’s been coming in slow motion – not just due to the Ukraine crisis – where western powers have become more inward looking when it comes to investment and promoting western values while eastern powers have used there cash & military might to promote their own outward focused investments and their own brand of ideology or supporting ones that are more compatible with their own all driven by nationalist pride. Soft power has been the bedrock of U.S and western policy post WWII but tables now seem to be turning the other way because ideological values that have been the foundation of western strength/power around the world have been compromised by the narrow focus on short term financial values/incentives and this is not a formula for long term success and sacrifice is out of the picture altogether. I sincerely hope I am wrong but with the way things are moving the future seems quite bleak where there is no longer a balance in power between 2 opposite ideologies and the strategic/security ramifications from such an outcome is unknown; so where to go from here is anyones guess. Remember this; it can be very dangerous when incompetent leaders take to the stage at the wrong time and in Britain we can probably right a book on the topic.
Just a thought!
A truly shameful/dismal performance by Liz Truss someone with no credentials in Foreign Policy. But then again her boss has has no credentials “period”