Intro: Playing allusions to old glory in a speeches ... New battle lines are being drawn in the 21st Century
Biden summons history in sweeping call for renewed alliance of democracies
"President seeks to re-establish US as a leader in global affairs after years of Trump-led disengagement
In a speech in Poland on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden indicated his intent to re-position the US as a leader in global affairs after four years of disengagement during the Trump administration.
It is not a task many thought Biden would so firmly take on when he took office in 2021. Initially, Biden focused on healing domestic wounds following four chaotic years of the Trump administration and the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Biden’s speech in Poland appeared designed to signal a shift in US policy and a generational call to arms for democratic countries to unite against autocracy in a years-long foreign policy project, with the US at its head.
“In this battle, we need to be clear eyed,” said Biden. “This battle will not be won in days or months, either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.”
That unity, Biden signaled, would need to include democracies that have at times been at odds with one another.
The sweeping speech ended with a call for “a different future, a brighter future rooted in democracy and principle, hope and light”.
The president used the speech to draw historical parallels between the war in Ukraine, which began a month ago when Russian forces invaded, to the second world war; moments symbolic of freedom including the fall of the Berlin Wall; and the words of Pope John Paul II, who was Polish and who told the world: “Be not afraid.”
In its sweep and scope, the speech had echoes of other major foreign policy addresses given by US presidents on European soil, such as Ronald Reagan’s “tear down this wall” speech in Berlin in 1987 and John F Kennedy’s Ich bin ein Berliner call in 1963.
“All of us, including here in Poland, must do the hard work of democracy each and every day – in my country as well. That’s why I came to Europe again this week,” said Biden. “For all freedom-loving nations, we must commit now to be in this fight for the long haul.” . .
“This is the task of our time. The task of this generation,” the president said about the fight against autocracy. . .
Biden called Vladimir Putin a “tyrant” and appealed directly to the Russian people. He invoked the struggles of the second world war, including the siege of Leningrad, which would be “fresh in the memory of many grandparents”. . .
Joe Biden delivers a speech in the courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Saturday. Photograph: Piotr Molęcki/East News/REX/Shutterstock
Reference: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/26/joe-biden-poland-speech-russia-ukraine-nato
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