It’s a time-honored political tradition: raise the threat of war to cement political support at home. From Andrew Korybko at korybko.substack.com:
What he’s dishonestly omitting is that there’s no chance of World War III breaking out so long as the West doesn’t conventionally intervene in Ukraine, not to mention invade Russia’s CSTO mutual defense ally Belarus or its own region of Kaliningrad that’s sandwiched between NATO states, all of which border Poland.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told European media last week that “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a thing of the past. It is real and in fact it started over two years ago. I understand that it will sound devastating, especially to the younger generation, but we have to mentally prepare for the arrival of a new era. We are in a pre-war era. I am not exaggerating.” He then compared the present period to the pre-World War II one and predicted that “the next two years will decide everything.”
This fearmongering about World War III is driven by self-interested political motives. On the home front, the totalitarian means through which he’s imposed his liberal–globalist vision onto Poland’s traditionally conservative-nationalist society provoked his country’s worst crisis since the 1980s. He’s also struggling to deal with the nationwide farmers’ protests that could morph into a modern-day Solidarity movement. These two interconnected trends could threaten his rule if they continue.
As for the international front, Tusk comprehensively subordinated Poland to German hegemony out of solidarity with its liberal-globalist ideology. This has deeply offended patriotic Poles and is fueling the abovementioned unrest. Additionally, he’s also seemingly contemplating a conventional military intervention in neighboring Ukraine either ahead of Russia breaking through the front lines sometime later this year or as an immediate response to that happening.
Naturally, the common people don’t want war … but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.
Hermann Goring