Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1455666
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 FEBRUARY 2022 OPINION 10 Raphael Vassallo OPINION If you take a pea-shooter to a gunfight… at least, make sure your peas hurt IT'S hard not to feel just a little sorry for Roberta Metsola these days. I imagine the situation she now finds herself in, is not quite what she herself may have en- visaged just a few short weeks ago. And let's face it: it can't ex- actly be easy, either. One min- ute you're being showered with praise, and lapping up every sin- gle second of media attention you can possibly get… and the next thing you know, you are suddenly expected to actually come up with a meaningful re- sponse: when Russia launches a full-scale invasion of a European country, right under your nose. Yep: that's a tough position to be in, and no mistake. And to be fair, she did at least try to rise to the occasion, in the only way she possibly could. She tweeted. She posted. She uploaded dozens of photos of herself: all looking suitably 'cross' with Vladimir Putin, for having been so very 'naughty'; or suitably 'defiant' and 'resolute', while promising 'grave consequences', or grand gestures of European unity (nei- ther of which ever quite materi- alized, in the end…) But, not to be unkind or any- thing (I'd say exactly the same thing for any other EP Presi- dent): it's all a little pointless, isn't it? This week's events clearly indicate that Vladimir Putin has already altered more than just the geo-political map of Eastern Europe; in one fell swoop, he has also radically re-dimensioned our entire con- cept of the balance of interna- tional power. And in these new scales (not that they're really 'new', but an- yway): what relevance could the tweeted opinion of the EP Pres- ident possibly have, anyway? Why should the rest of the world bother listening, when given re- peated reassurances that 'the Kremlin will be held accounta- ble'? (Yeah? Really? How, if you don't mind my asking?) For even if that is indeed Met- sola's intention (and I have no doubt it is) she herself knows full well that she wields no real pow- er to make good on any of those fiery threats. And, much more to the point: so does everyone else… including Vladimir Putin. Ultimately, it is the 27 EU heads of state who have to con- verge upon a single strategic response – and while it is ad- mittedly reassuring, to know that the European Parliament at least expects them to deliver the 'harshest possible sanctions' – we also know that there is, in fact, no such consensus among European leaders at all. This is why, after so much big talk, the EU/USA only managed to scrape together a raft of sanc- tions that are – let's be honest – rather embarrassing, at the end of the day. And given that previous threats of 'serious re- percussions' were evidently not enough to deter Putin in the first place: how much less 'de- terred' will he feel now, that the only repercussions he may end up facing, are so utterly… tooth- less? Not, of course, that any of this is Metsola's own fault: but it does mean that, while her own public condemnations remain welcome – like I said earlier: she did, at least, make a valiant effort to support the people of Ukraine, in the only way she possibly could - her own opin- ions, and input, are actually quite irrelevant from this point on. The rest of the world, I should imagine, is now much more focused on what the genuine players may be thinking, at this stage: the ones whose pieces are already on the chess-board (or who actually do have pieces in their hand, ready to be played when necessary). Naturally, these include US President Joe Biden, who – in those rare moments when he actually seemed awake, while talking - has so far excluded any form of direct military inter- vention in Ukraine itself (once again, leaving us only with eco- nomic sanctions, as a response.) It includes NATO: which – as far as I can see – was the only international voice offering at least some form of 'military pro- tection', in response to Russian aggression (even if it was only for its own member countries; and only if-or-when they them- selves are invaded.) And it would also have to in- clude all the Defence Ministers, and (more importantly still) all the military Command- ers-in-Chief, of those states ac- tually bordering with Ukraine, not to mention Russia itself: Po- land, Romania, Moldova… even Finland, which has the long- est European land-border with Russia by far (and whose capital is within pea-shooter range of St Petersburgh, no less). If there is any room in which I'd want to be a 'fly-on-the-wall', right now: it would be the secret bunkers (real or virtual), where the truly relevant people are no doubt meeting for discussions of their own. But what do you know? For that very reason, they are most emphatically NOT the ones who are consistently 'tweeting' all their secret military strate- gies out loud, in the open: you know, so that everyone else out there – once again, including Putin himself – would be pub- licly informed (and therefore, 'forewarned'). And it is precisely because their own input is so valuable, that all those people – well, ex- cept Biden, perhaps – are keep- ing their gobs so very tightly SHUT, for the time being. That, by the way, is a pretty good example for everyone else to follow, too (especially seeing as it comes from battle-hard- ened nations, some of which have a recent history of Soviet occupation). For, at the risk of stating the bleedingly obvious: if wars were fought with 'tweets' instead of 'tanks', and 'Facebook status updates' instead of 'mis- siles'… oh, no doubt about it: by now, Putin would probably be cowering in a secret under- ground Moscow bunker, with his tail between his legs... But that's not quite what's hap-