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Your guide to what the American elections mean 2024 for Washington and the world

“Freedom and independence today is in danger all over the world. If the forces of conquest are not successfully resisting and defeating, there will be no freedom, independence, no opportunity for freedom for any nation.” This is how I did Franklin Dylano Roosevelt Celebrated the first anniversary of the Atlantic Ocean Charter, which was agreed upon between Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941. Many of the world. It was not. Today, not only the autocracy is increasingly confident. The United States is moving next to them. This is the last two weeks lesson. Freedom is not in danger as much as it was in 1942. However, the risks are very real.

Three events emerge. The first was a A letter on February 12 Written by Defense Secretary Donald Trump, Beit Higseth, to the defensive communication group in Ukraine in NATO, in which the Europeans were told that they are now alone. America was now mainly interested in its borders and China. In short: “European security protection must be a necessity for European members in NATO. As part of these Europe, the overwhelming share of deadly and non -deadly aids in the future must provide Ukraine.”

The second was a JD Vance speechThe Vice President of the United States, at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, in which he announced that “what worries it is the threat from within, and Europe’s decline from some of its basic values-its common values ​​with the United States from America.” An example of such a threat is that “the Romanian government has just eliminated full elections.” That is why it may respond that Europeans know better than Americans what happens when the enemies of freedom come to power through elections. But they also know that his boss, Trump himself, sought to cancel the outcome of the presidential elections four years ago. “Owan”, “boilers” and “black” come to mind.

The third and most unveiled event is negotiating the future of Ukraine. Of course, Higseth accepted the most important conditions of Putin by announcing that Ukraine’s borders will not be re -established and could not join NATO. But this was just the beginning. Negotiations were held between the United States and Russia on European presidents, although the latter had ordered the provision of any safe deal, in a gruesome manner, for the same Ukraine, whose people carry the three -year -old Vladimir Putin. To date, Insist on the United StatesRussia was not the aggressor. on the contrary, Ukraine began the war. To emphasize the division of Europe, We voted in favor of a decision at the United Nations Security Council Besides Russia and China, while France, the United Kingdom and other Europeans abstained. “The West” is dead.

Trump has also announced that Volodimir Zellinski was. “DictatorAnd it is a term that is not used by Putin, and it is one. His justification for this attack is that the President of Ukraine did not take place.

Very specially, Trump also suggested a real estate deal. According to ZelinskiThe US Treasury Secretary Scott Besanti’s proposal demanded a 50 percent of the rare land rights in the country and critical minerals in the country in exchange for previous military assistance, and did not contain any offers to help in the future.

It can be said, for Trump, the “dictator” may be a term for something, not condemnation. Again, for him, possessing one of the valuable assets in another country may be the only reason to protect him. However, the demand for a huge amount of a poor country was a victim of unjustified aggression, especially when Ukraine must rebuild. It is worse that the value of our demands was some Four times her help. Moreover, according to Tracking the support of the Keel Ukraine InstituteThe Europeans provided greater assistance than the United States, which made only 31 percent of total bilateral obligations and 41 percent of military obligations to Ukraine between January 2022 and December 2024. Where are they in these negotiations? nowhere. Trump decides to Ukraine and Europe, alone. (See Plans.)

In all, the United States spent only 0.19 percent of GDP on Ukraine’s military assistance. This is trivial, especially compared to the cost of its previous wars. On the other hand, it gained humiliation of what was believed to be a strong enemy and the dissolving of the liberal democracy for which they were fighting and the United States fought one day.

During the past two weeks, two things have shown. The first is that the United States decided to give up the role in the world that it assumed during World War II. With Trump’s return to the White House, he instead decided to become just a great power, indifferent to anything but his short -term interests, especially its material interests. This leaves the reasons that I supported in forgetting, including the rights of small countries and democracy themselves. This is also suitable for what is happening within the United States, as the country created by the new deal and the law created on the law established by the constitution at the risk of destruction.

In response, Europe will rise to this occasion or disintegrate. Europeans will need to create much stronger cooperation in a strong framework for liberal and democratic standards. If they do not, they will be chosen to pieces by the great powers in the world. They should start saving Ukraine from Putin’s hatred.

Martin.wolf@ft.com

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