‘Europe Is Already at War’ — A Guest Op-Ed by Joni Askola
Geopolitical analyst Joni Askola shares his thread with the Bette community on a Europe already war and the immediate need to stop ignoring that reality
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Author’s note: Joni Askola will be our guest this Sunday at 10 pm Pacific for Founder’s Day, which is open to Founding members, longtime Bette supporters and high-level donors. If you would like to attend, please upgrade to Founding level (which is any amount above a full annual membership). I am also looking forward to the return of Monique Camarra Tuesday at noon PT for Bette’s Happy Hour, always open to all paid membership levels. Registration links for both events will be sent separately.
Memetic War
Today, I wrote a tweet about how I’m not going to share the hate imagery directed at the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen from the terrorist state of Russia — it was vile and scarring and a declaration of war on the EU. It’s literally the same kind of evil memetic warfare that was aimed at Hillary Clinton in 2016 to take her off the board so Russia could install their asset Donald Trump. Everyone everywhere must wake up to the reality of the new war and exhibit moral courage.
Below you will find an important guest op-ed from Askola, a geopolitical analyst who combats Russian disinformation. As he notes, it’s time for global bravery and not pretending away the Russia problem. Thank you as always for your support of this work.-hsc
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Europe Is Already at War: A Guest Op-Ed by Joni Askola
Europe is already at war. It’s high time we stop ignoring this reality!
Most Europeans are divided between those who know how serious the situation is but prefer not to think about it too much, and those who don’t know what a war is. It’s time they learn, and high time we all admit to ourselves that we are at war with Russia.
Some have been criticized in Europe for saying that we are at war, but they were right. There are many forms of war, and Russia is imposing several of them on Europe.
Russia has been at war with Ukraine for 11 years, three of which have been full-scale. Ukraine is closer than most realize, and the escalation of the war there is a good example of what is to come if we don’t stop it from spreading.
Russia is also waging a very successful hybrid war on other European countries through sabotage, cyberattacks, assassinations, economic warfare, intimidation, and disinformation campaigns. This war started long before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
I’m increasingly convinced that our failure to help Ukraine sufficiently is mostly due to most Europeans not admitting to themselves that we are at war with Russia.
By ignoring this reality, we handicap ourselves.
We can still prevent this full-scale war from spreading to other European countries. However, this requires us to wake up, admit the realities, and take action instead of ignoring what is happening around us. The war won’t disappear by ignoring it.
Europe surpasses Russia in almost every metric, with better values and healthier societies. However, our weakness is not admitting we are at war.
The longer we delay, the more lives will be lost, and the higher the risk of the full-scale war spreading
Listen to what Putin, Medvedev, Surkov, and other Russian officials and propagandists say, and you will see that they consider themselves at war with us. They are acting on it, and we are not because we are cowards who prefer to outsource our defense.
With Trump in power, he won’t defend us, and we need to take care of our own defense. Trump is also failing to mediate the end of the war and is likely about to give up on that, so the issue is more timely than ever before.
Russian ambitions don’t stop in Ukraine, and Putin is preparing for the next wars. The war in Ukraine might last for a long time, but no matter how long it lasts, Russia won’t be able to demobilize because that would cause chaos and hurt the economy too much.
The same people who said that Russia would not invade Ukraine are now saying that Russia won’t invade Europe. They are useful idiots, traitors, and opportunists who will be wrong over and over again.
It is possible for Russia to fail in Ukraine and still invade Europe afterward. Ukraine, as a large country that has prepared for years, is much harder to invade than Georgia or the Baltics, especially if the US does not help.
It is important to admit realities but also important not to panic. We have taken some successful steps in increasing shell production and with the Czech initiative. We just need to do much more!
Our leaders have been focusing on hypothetical post-war peacekeepers in a war that is not about to end. We keep wasting time even though we know that Trump won’t save Ukraine. We need to focus on helping Ukraine now instead.
How we act now will determine how bad actors will treat us in the future. We cannot let russia get away with an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and only long-term commitments of aid to Ukraine will change Putin’s perspective on the war.
We can still prevent the full-scale war from spreading to other European countries, but we need to admit that we are at war and then make long-term commitments to Ukraine.
(This guest op-ed originally appeared as part of a thread on Joni Askola’s Twitter feed.)
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Joni Askola is a Finnish PhD candidate, geopolitical analyst, and activist who has lived in various locations, including Russia. He works to combat Russian disinformation, fight against authoritarianism, and defend democracies, both online and through fundraising efforts for Ukraine with an organization called Help99. To support Joni's fundraising for the war effort in Ukraine, go here. You will find his YouTube show here.
You can find his threads on the following socials:
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