The Netherlands has finally found the courage to call Russia what it is: an enemy. Only for it’s main ‘ally’ to immediately show that they don’t agree.
Russia keeps chipping away at Europe through sabotage, drones and intimidation, the grey-zone aggression known as hybrid warfare. Meanwhile, its aggressive war against Ukraine grinds on, killing civilians on a daily basis.
On October 8, Defence Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz stopped calling Russia “the aggressor” and started calling it “the enemy”. Lies leave her mouth on a daily basis, but this time she uttered the truth.
By Sunday, Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen was calling Russia a “hostile power”. For a country that long hid behind careful language, that’s a real shift.
Keeping Trump happy
Alongside that new clarity, the Dutch have clung to a quieter strategy: keep talking to Donald Trump, keep him onside, and hope he doesn’t do further damage to European security.
It was annoying and humiliating, mostly for Mark Rutte, but the real world has consequences and keeping the mighty military of the US was needed.
Then came Friday and that whole strategy could be driven to the dump.
Cheering on a lifestream of an execution was not even the most heinous thing Donald brought into the world this Friday alone.
On the same day, his administration announced sanctions designed to paralyse the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Spitting in the face of Dutch diplomacy and obviously showing that he can’t handle a respectful judge winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Still not reaching the moral bottom of modern day American politics, he still found time to strike a diesel deal with Vladimir Putin, waiving US sanctions so Russian fuel could flow again (and turning those dollars into rockets against Ukraine, nothing less).
Do as I say, not as I do
Three weeks earlier, Trump signed a law threatening tariffs of up to 100% on the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas. Other countries were to be punished for filling Moscow’s war chest.
Now Washington is filling it itself. Why? Diesel prices are at record highs and Americans vote in next month’s midterms. Experts suggest that this deal won’t even make a dent in those high prices, but if the goal is to make a dent in your relationship with your “allies” then it certainly worked out.
What’s the point of naming an enemy if your allies are allies in name only?
What is the point of calling Russia the enemy if the most powerful member of the Western alliance will sell us out for pocket change?
Russia sends missiles raining down on Ukraine and launches hybrid attacks against Europe every day to make its position clear.
On Friday, Trump once again made it abundantly clear where he stands in relation to the Netherlands and Europe. It is time for the Netherlands and the rest of Europe to finally take that reality to heart and make European independence and strength a genuine priority.
We must build a Europe capable of guaranteeing its own security and move away from our dependence on a fundamentally unreliable America.
The Netherlands has learnt to name its enemy. Now it has to face a harder truth, this US is no ally of us.
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of DutchReview.
