Time to make decisions
It is a great tragedy that we become accustomed to what happens in a war, that we continue with our daily lives, which undoubtedly present many, many problems, and that we ignore what is happening in conflicts that drag on over time but continue to have deadly consequences for thousands of people.
Allow me to recall one of my experiences in covering several wars and focus on one that was fought in Europe some 30 years ago, namely the wars in the Balkans. After three years of daily tragedies, you would call from Sarajevo, or from Mostar, or from anywhere in Bosnia to report on the latest atrocity committed by one side or the other, and the response was a lack of interest because it was more of the same. More bombs, more deaths, more tragedies, but thousands of kilometres away and far from what matters most to us here, such as work, taxes, children, neighbours or the Champions League. You had to work hard to get a slot on the radio news, in the newspaper, and even harder on television.
This experience, a little anecdote if you will, serves to draw as much attention as possible from the public to what is happening every day in Ukraine, Gaza, and other places where conflicts drag on and no longer receive the attention they deserve from the media because it is more of the same.
Until a massacre occurs that is impossible to ignore, both by political leaders and the media, as well as by society in general, which then demands an immediate solution.
More than 25 people have been killed, adding to the thousands who have already died during these years of Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Sarajevo, the attack on the flower market claimed 84 lives, and a few days later another bombing on Marshall Tito Avenue killed 44 people. Both attacks produced brutal images of people killed, maimed, crawling, leaving a horrific trail of blood. Those images on television news programmes around the world at dinner time prompted the United States to intervene, and the war ended a few months later.
Now we are seeing the European Union's reaction because the attack on its headquarters in Kiev has a clear meaning and is a provocation on Putin's part, at a time when he is trying to gain advantage on the ground through violence so that he can then negotiate better conditions, and at a time when the current peculiar president of the United States, Donald Trump, sees Putin doing what suits him and exposing him, or rather ridiculing him. Trump has said after the attack on Kiev that he wants the conflict to end and that he does not care how.
Herein lies the problem. All these great tragedies suffered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine cannot be resolved in any way that allows Putin to win. It is assumed that he will not lose, but for him to emerge as the great victor is a major threat to all Europeans. Meanwhile, Germany has reinstated military service, which is voluntary for the time being. In Spain, we say that this is impossible. Well, when the wolf comes, we will see how we deal with it if we have not taken measures and made decisions in time. And that time is now. And it is not just a question of reaching 2% of spending on security and defence, as NATO recognises, the situation and the threat are much more serious and require a clear awareness of the need to greatly strengthen our defence to guarantee our security, among other things. It is certainly not easy, but that is the way it is, even if many do not see it, or do not want to or are not interested in seeing it.