Photo: Aleksandra SZMIGIEL/reuters / Deutsche Welle
The words that US President Joe Biden spoke on Saturday in Warsaw were historic. Words that at times recalled John F. Kennedy’s famous speech in Berlin or Winston Churchill’s “blood, sweat and tears” speech.
The most important words they were addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin: the free world remains united and the imperialist plans of the Kremlin will fail. Ukraine has the right to freedom and sovereignty. Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine will ruin Russia’s economy and rob Russians of a chance for a future.
From Poland, Biden sent a clear message to the president Russian: Solidarity with NATO is a “sacred obligation” and the United States will “defend every inch of the territory” of the military alliance. Uttered before the rebuilt Royal Castle in Warsaw, whose destruction by Germany in 1939 is an enduring symbol of the barbarism of the war, these words had a great meaning for the Polish hosts.
Also there were poignant moments in Biden’s speech. Hours earlier, he claimed that he had met a Ukrainian girl who had been displaced by the invasion. She asked what would happen to her father and her brother, who had stayed behind to fight. It is this naked humanity and empathy, in part, that makes Biden the leader of the free world.
“A free society”
Churchill did not promise a quick and easy victory over tyranny in his 1940 speech. No, it will take a long time and will have a high cost. Germany will also have to get out of its comfort zone.
Biden’s speech was full of praise for his Polish hosts, who in a great display of humanity have opened their homes and their hearts to the Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion. And yet she also struck a blow for the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, by mentioning freedom of the press among the “essential” principles in a free society. A bill vetoed late last year by Polish President Andrzej Duda would have forced TVN, an American broadcaster critical of PiS, out of the media market.
Saturday’s speech began and ended with the words spoken by the Polish John Paul II when he became pope in 1978: “Do not have afraid”. At the time, these words inspired resistance to the Soviet-influenced regime in Poland and ultimately helped end the dictatorship.
Biden’s speech 44 years later had the same intention: to inspire courage and declare the end of tyranny as its goal. “And may God defend our freedom,” Biden said. (rr/mn)