The Wave: March 2025

CALL TO ACTION – RALLIES – MAKE THE PEOPLE’S VOICE HEARD

Friday March 14,  5:30 pm, rally starts near the gazebo in Poulsbo Waterfront Park. Part of a national event protesting DOGE’s decimation of the Veterans’ Administration. Support our veterans! If you’re a vet and can still fit into your military uniform, wear it.  All others: make/bring signs.

Sunday March 16, 11:00 am, starts near the gazebo in Waterfront Park – to protest the ruinous policies laid out in Project 2025 and the words and deeds of the Heritage Foundation. (Big protest in Washington DC will march to the Heritage Foundation’s offices.)

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EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE, MARCH 2025For us as citizens of the world, here is a European perspective on the rapidly changing world order, presented in a magnificent and urgent speech that’s already been widely distributed around the world. Not just Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and Gaza, but Europe itself is threatened by the insatiable appetites of dictators Trump and Putin.

Senator Claude Malhuret’s speech to the French Senate on March 5, 2025

Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen,

   Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine is at risk of being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine charged with purging the civil service.

  This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is especially a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose as he will not defend you; he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you. The “king of the deal” is demonstrating what the submissive art of the deal is. He believes he will intimidate China by capitulating to Putin, but Xi Jinping, witnessing such a trainwreck, is no doubt speeding up his own preparations to invade Taiwan. Never in history has a president of the United States surrendered to an enemy. Never before has one supported an aggressor against an ally. Never before has one trampled on the American Constitution, issued so many illegal decrees, dismissed judges who might oppose him, sacked the entire military leadership in one go, weakened all opposition, and taken control of social media. This is not merely illiberal deviation but rather the beginning of a confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it took only one month, three weeks, and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its constitution.

  I have faith in the resilience of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in just one month, Trump has done more damage to America than in four years of his previous term. We were at war with a dictator; we are now facing a dictator supported by a traitor. A week ago, at the very moment when Trump was patting Macron on the back at the White House, the United States voted at the UN--alongside Russia and North Korea--against the Europeans who were demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops. Two days later in the Oval Office, the draft-dodger gave moral and strategic lessons to the war hero Zelenskyy before dismissing him like a stable-boy, ordering him to submit or resign. Last night, he took another step into disgrace by halting the delivery of promised weapons.

   What should we do in the face of such betrayal? The answer is simple: stand firm. Above all, make no mistake: the fall of Ukraine would mean the fall of Europe. The Baltic countries, Georgia, and Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin. The global South awaits the outcome of this conflict to decide whether they should continue respecting Europe or whether they are now free to trample it. What Putin wants is the end of the order that was established by the United States and its allies eighty years ago, whose first principle was the prohibition against acquiring territory by force. This idea is at the very foundation of the UN, where today the United States is voting in favor of the aggressor and against the victim, because Trump’s vision aligns with Putin’s, a return to spheres of influence, where the major powers dictate the fate of smaller nations. “I’ll take Greenland, Canada, and Panama—you can have Ukraine, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe. He gets Taiwan and the South China Sea.” Among Mar-a-Lago golf oligarchs, this is called ‘diplomatic realism.’

   So we are alone. But it is false to conclude that that there is no use in resisting Putin.  In spite of what we hear in the Kremlin’s propaganda, Russia is struggling. In three years, the so-called second-best army in the world has managed to gain only crumbs from a country with one third of its population. With interest rates at 25%, the collapse of foreign currency and gold reserves, and a demographic crisis, Russia is on the brink. The American lifeline to Putin is the greatest strategic mistake ever made during a war. The shock is severe, but it has an advantage: Europeans are emerging from their denial. In a single day in Munich, they understood that Ukraine’s survival and Europe’s future are in their hands, and that they have three imperatives.

  First, Europe must speed up military aid to Ukraine to compensate for America’s abandonment; to ensure it holds; and of course, to secure Ukraine’s and Europe’s place at the negotiating table. This will be costly. It will require ending the taboo on using frozen Russian assets. It will require bypassing Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself through a coalition of willing countries including the United Kingdom.

  Second, demand that any agreement include the return of kidnapped children and prisoners, and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia, and Minsk, we know what Putin’s agreements are worth. These agreements must be backed by sufficient military force to prevent any new invasion.

  Finally, and most urgently because it will take the longest, we must rebuild the neglected European defense forces, which have relied on the American umbrella since 1945 and been sabotaged since the fall of the Berlin wall. It is a Herculean task; but it’s on its success or failure that the leaders of today’s democratic Europe will be judged in the history books.

  Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is an admission that France was right for decades to advocate for strategic autonomy. Now, it must be built. Massive investment will be needed  […]

   The plan announced yesterday by Ursula Van der Leyen[1] is an excellent starting point. And much more will be needed. Europe will only become a military power again by becoming an industrial power once more. In short, we must implement the Draghi report[2] for real.

  But Europe’s true rearmament is its moral rearmament. We must marshal public opinion in the face of war fatigue and fear, and especially against Putin’s collaborators on both the far right and far left. Once again, they stood before you in the National Assembly yesterday, Mr. Prime Minister, arguing against European unity, against European defense. They claim they want peace. What neither they nor Trump say is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of Zelenskyy/De Gaulle by a Ukrainian Pétain under the boot of Putin. The peace of collaborators who for three years have refused to support the Ukrainians in any way.

  Is this the end of the Atlantic alliance? The risk is great. But in recent days, the public humiliation of Zelenskyy, and the series of reckless decisions made over the past month, have finally stirred the Americans into action.  Poll numbers are plummeting; Republican representatives are being met with hostile crowds in their districts; even Fox News is starting to criticize. The Trumpists are no longer enjoying a honeymoon. They control the executive branch, Congress, the Supreme Court, and social networks. But in American history, the defenders of liberty have always prevailed. They are beginning to rise again. The fate of Ukraine is decided in the trenches, but it also depends on those in the United States who fight to defend democracy, and here, our ability to unite Europeans, who find the means for our collective defense, and to restore Europe as the great power it has historically been and hesitates to be again.

  Our parents defeated fascism and communism at the cost of great sacrifice. The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.

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A FEW USEFUL or ILLUMINATING RESOURCES

--  5 calls : app that’s “the easiest and most effective way for U.S. constituents to make a political impact.” Allows you to find your legislators & pending issues/legislation, and place calls to get your voice counted. Get the app and see how fast & easily you can find out about bills and voice your Yes or No to your elected officials.

--  N Kitsap Indivisible: our local chapter of the national Indivisible. Find on Facebook.

--  Poulsbo for All: Poulsbo’s forum for information about local government and community concerns. On Facebook: up-to-the-minute posts about Poulsbo, Washington, the nation, the world.  Info on rallies and actions in N Kitsap as well.            

--  WAISN: WA Immigrant Support Network. Waisn.org    WAISN Hotline: 1-844-724-3737

--  DOGE official page, “An Official Website of the United States Government”: DOGE.gov(Note that the opening page, “Latest Work,” gives you beginnings of tweets on X, so you have to follow them to Musk’s X. An official US government website!)

[1] Current President of the European Commission.

[2] For the European Commission, Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank, analyzed the state of Europe’s economy and issued recommendations for its sustainable prosperity and competitiveness. (2024)