It helps to remember Hungary suffered terribly at Soviet hands during and after WWII: they were invaded and horrific things happened to the general public, especially the vulnerable. They were occupied like the rest of the Warsaw Pact and lived under the same appalling totalitarianism all the others did. But we have to remember, they did rebel, and the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 was brutally suppressed, much like the one in Czechoslovakia in 1968. These people have seen this movie before, and the ending was unforgettable. If they have zero wish to engage with Russia, personified by the very worst of Soviet rule, the KGB, we shouldn't be surprised. This does not excuse its current position vis-à-vis helping its direct neighbour, but it does add perspective to their thinking.
As far as the EU is concerned, they can bark all they want but the fact remains, they have no military to speak of, so they are without any bite. It started as an economic union and a hope that nations in the European continent would finally stop all their internecine bickering and just get along once and for all! So far so good, but they have poured all their energy and economies to date into bolstering their own interests. Every so often someone muses that it might not be a bad idea to establish a pan-European Army to protect it, but that idea gets shouted down, or ignored, because of course, standing armies cost a lot of money, not to mention all the necessary acoutrements in terms of equipment, materiel, etc., and budgets seem to be in short supply when it comes down to the crunch. Look at the blow-up with Nato: turns out no one apart from faraway USA was actually carrying their own can; in fact for a long time, the US seemed to be carrying everyone else's cans too. A pan-European Army starts to look and sound pretty hollow when you look at the record so far. The US appears to be wobbling on the issue as well (great timing), so now what? Ukraine is the red-headed stepchild no one wants when things go south.
It's so hard to call this one. On the one hand, our hearts go out to the Ukrainian people: should they manage to get their country back, it resembles a gravel pit right now, and rebuilding it will be costly in every sense of the term. Nato et al. are unsurprisingly disinclined to get into a potentially disastrous conflict with a megalomaniac capable of anything. Are they right to take a back seat in this instance? Ukraine is very much a part of Europe, it isn't some faraway country hardly anyone has ever heard of. How can Europe stand by and watch it get pulverised? The thinking must be along the lines of: will any other neighbouring countries get hit next? It must be like watching a ripper running amok on a train: no one wants to confront the monster for fear of getting slashed, so they stand there helplessly and watch him slaughter other travellers.
From my early teens til well into my 20's friends and I would regularly meet up at someones house and play a board game called Risk, a kind of political power game, where you formed pacts and alliances, to achieve this well basicly you lied quite a lot of the time. You may wonder why I mention this now. Since the very start of this I have for the first time in nearly 50 years been reminded of that board game. I do not trust or believe Zelensky and with each day the passes that distrust grows. I will say this anyone who thinks that the former Eastern block countrys who all lived under the thumb of mother Russia are natural allies and have a great affection for one another are very wide of the mark each has their own agenda. Shared oppression does not mean unity and love between them.
It helps to remember Hungary suffered terribly at Soviet hands during and after WWII: they were invaded and horrific things happened to the general public, especially the vulnerable. They were occupied like the rest of the Warsaw Pact and lived under the same appalling totalitarianism all the others did. But we have to remember, they did rebel, and the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 was brutally suppressed, much like the one in Czechoslovakia in 1968. These people have seen this movie before, and the ending was unforgettable. If they have zero wish to engage with Russia, personified by the very worst of Soviet rule, the KGB, we shouldn't be surprised. This does not excuse its current position vis-à-vis helping its direct neighbour, but it does add perspective to their thinking.
As far as the EU is concerned, they can bark all they want but the fact remains, they have no military to speak of, so they are without any bite. It started as an economic union and a hope that nations in the European continent would finally stop all their internecine bickering and just get along once and for all! So far so good, but they have poured all their energy and economies to date into bolstering their own interests. Every so often someone muses that it might not be a bad idea to establish a pan-European Army to protect it, but that idea gets shouted down, or ignored, because of course, standing armies cost a lot of money, not to mention all the necessary acoutrements in terms of equipment, materiel, etc., and budgets seem to be in short supply when it comes down to the crunch. Look at the blow-up with Nato: turns out no one apart from faraway USA was actually carrying their own can; in fact for a long time, the US seemed to be carrying everyone else's cans too. A pan-European Army starts to look and sound pretty hollow when you look at the record so far. The US appears to be wobbling on the issue as well (great timing), so now what? Ukraine is the red-headed stepchild no one wants when things go south.
It's so hard to call this one. On the one hand, our hearts go out to the Ukrainian people: should they manage to get their country back, it resembles a gravel pit right now, and rebuilding it will be costly in every sense of the term. Nato et al. are unsurprisingly disinclined to get into a potentially disastrous conflict with a megalomaniac capable of anything. Are they right to take a back seat in this instance? Ukraine is very much a part of Europe, it isn't some faraway country hardly anyone has ever heard of. How can Europe stand by and watch it get pulverised? The thinking must be along the lines of: will any other neighbouring countries get hit next? It must be like watching a ripper running amok on a train: no one wants to confront the monster for fear of getting slashed, so they stand there helplessly and watch him slaughter other travellers.
From my early teens til well into my 20's friends and I would regularly meet up at someones house and play a board game called Risk, a kind of political power game, where you formed pacts and alliances, to achieve this well basicly you lied quite a lot of the time. You may wonder why I mention this now. Since the very start of this I have for the first time in nearly 50 years been reminded of that board game. I do not trust or believe Zelensky and with each day the passes that distrust grows. I will say this anyone who thinks that the former Eastern block countrys who all lived under the thumb of mother Russia are natural allies and have a great affection for one another are very wide of the mark each has their own agenda. Shared oppression does not mean unity and love between them.