This is a little exercise in compare-and-contrast. A lot more could be said on the topic (two topics, actually), but we’ll start with this simple comparison.
First, French President Emmanuel “Toy Boy” Macron, who really, really seems to want a direct military confrontation with Russia. From Sky News:
Europe should prepare for war if it wants peace, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
In an interview on French national television, Mr Macron said Vladimir Putin’s Russia was an adversary that would not stop in Ukraine if it defeated Kyiv’s troops.
“If Russia wins this war, Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero,” Mr Macron said.
He added: “If war spread in Europe, Russia would be to blame.
“But if we decided to be weak, if we decided today that we would not respond, it would be choosing defeat already. And I don’t want that.”
He went on to say Europe’s security was “at stake in Ukraine”.
Mr Macron said it was important for Europe not to draw red lines, which would signal weakness to the Kremlin and encourage it to push on with its invasion of Ukraine.
But he refused to give detail on what a deployment to Ukraine might look like.
Mr Macron also reiterated his position on sending Western troops into Ukraine should not be ruled out but added that today’s situation did not require that.
“We’re not in that situation today,” he said, but added that “all these options are possible”.
Europe’s security is “at stake in Ukraine” only in the sense that interfering with what Russia considers its existential security issues is VERY bad for the security of the EU.
Time was, European political leaders (think: Bismarck) had a very well-developed sense of Realpolitik, of what was possible, and what might be accomplished within the constraints posed by the strengths and weaknesses of the competing great powers. But nothing remotely like that is in evidence today. Western leaders seem to fall all over themselves to strike a match next to the pool of gasoline that the Ukraine war represents.
There is a lot of speculation about why Mr. Macron is engaging in this flagrantly inflammatory rhetoric. One theory holds that he (and other EU leaders) are aware that the USA is about to cut its losses and bail on Ukraine, leaving the Europeans holding the bag. The collapse of the Ukrainian project will have devastating political consequences for the European Union, the full ramifications of which are not yet visible.
OK, that was the boy. Now consider one of the few adults on the European political scene.
The following report gives a representative account of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from the point of view of the Western establishment — specifically, the media component of the Deep State known as The Washington Post. For many years I have assiduously avoided reading the WaPo, but I suppressed my gag reflex long enough to read this article in order to get an idea of the Conventional Wisdom on Mr. Orbán.
Some excerpts: