THE COMING WINTER OF DISCONTENT

EU leaders can be seen running, bothering, cajoling just about anyone who is willing to listen. The Commission preaches, the Council is stuck. If Ukraine doesn't lose, the EU does. Putin was able to achieve a larger, still unfolding consequence, the unstoppable disarray in the West, mostly in Europe. 

If future developments remain unclear, the Russian Federation might achieve a more ominous alternative for short-term gains in Ukraine--a structural weakening of Western Europe. The talk about NATO and Western awakening sounds hollow when the bills can no longer be paid. The approaching winter will downgrade resolve and cohesion. The energy Armageddon will certainly derail peoples' sympathies and give Putin some new weapon of mass destruction in the form of a medieval plague that will corrode heart and will. 

The US is yet again the only trustworthy force Ukraine can count on. The EU parades the Ukrainian flag in Brussels' main square, big deal. There is no Winston Churchill around, who predicted it all, even then. Russia's times of enlightenment  are short-lived. When they occur, they shouldn't be ignored. Neither should one lose a warranted sceptical appreciation regarding their sustainability.

There is some talk in the EU regarding the need for a Zeitenweide , mostly in military matters. All good and well but one knows too well that in the long term we are all dead. Europeans had better face the music. The coming months require social engineering, hard truths and biting living conditions. Governments still look unable to enter into an intelligent dialogue with their constituents. The talks around energy appear to happen in a black hole. Instead of considering an EU Marshall Plan, Europeans appear stuck in a repair shop. In Russia they burn gas for their pleasure. In Ukraine David humiliates Goliath, who will try to win the alternative war by destabilizing Europe. Let there be no mistake, worldwide opportunists rule.

Qatar's soccer folly will deprive Ukraine of its pole position in the world. The grit will hold, the fans will be duped and Putin might as well drop by.