Words from Munich

The city of Munich in southeast Germany will always be associated with the great sellout of September 1938 that threw the people of eastern Europe to the wolves in Berlin. So it is an extraordinary place for the leaders of the free world to discuss the fate of another eastern European country, this time under attack by the wolves in Moscow.

Angela Merkel came out looking like the reincarnation of Neville Chamberlain. Joe Biden gave a remarkably pugnacious speech, for a member of the Obama administration, but it was Senator Lindsay Graham who rebuked Ms Merkel, in these admirable words:

“Do you really believe any of this you have heard [from the Russians]?" 

"Who are you trying [not] to upset? Are you worried about upsetting people who just lie to your face and could give a damn about their neighbor and the rule of law? How about trying to help somebody that you actually do have something in common with?" 

"I don’t know how this ends if you give [Ukraine] a defensive capability. But I know this: I will feel better because when my nation was needed to stand up to the garbage and stand for freedom, I stood for freedom. They may die. They may lose. But all I can tell you is that if somebody doesn’t push back better, we’re all going to lose.”