"How well diplomacy with Putin works, we have seen. A person like Putin clearly cannot be persuaded by diplomacy. And anyone who thinks diplomacy alone is enough as a security guarantee is living in a dream world. Ukraine must win. Russia must be crushed."
This narrative is played up endlessly in the EU media and is supposedly meant to increase the population's willingness to defend itself.
The thinking part of the population is very well aware:
What would really help us is a strong military defense AND as rapid a normalization of relations with Russia as possible.
The hawks, who constantly prattle on about security, don't take diplomacy into account, and that makes them unbelievable.
People are expected to support armaments and defense without being told what the actually realistic peace or war objectives could be. Besides, a leadership that stages an unconditional wartime posture and perpetual state of tension is not one you would - or should - want to follow.
Being treated like an idiot and intimidated doesn't go down well.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far," said Theodore Roosevelt, and by "speak softly" he probably also meant "don't talk martial nonsense."
Our so-called military experts tend to reinforce the passive, pacifist basic attitude rather than overcome it.
Maybe that's not entirely bad. Still, the irritation remains: all these material resources and human lives deployed, and then this directionless yet power-pretending political leadership.
They sit themselves down heavily at the table, eat the soup with a fork, the steak with a spoon, order one course after another, and then complain that no one wishes them a good appetite. It's unbearable to watch.
