Do you want a concrete example of the relevance of multilateralism between states that also protects the Portuguese and Western populations? Look at the chaos in the Middle East with Iran’s response to Operation Epic Fury and where all this was absent from the first moment.
In a context in which the European Union so much invokes its desired “strategic autonomy”, it would be expected that, at least, the states would affirm the primacy of International Law and diplomacy. Some did. Portugal opted for administrative silence. Something that made us dangerously complicit. Even if prudently, the Union has appealed to restraint and institutional legality. Outside of this spectrum, even the United Kingdom, which is the great ally of the Americans, was blunt and did not renounce the reflex in the use of its bases.
A large part of American and European public opinion is read, and there is little or no ideological criticism of this attack and which highlights what should have already been learned from recent history. Regime changes don’t happen like that in a country the size of Iran and with the terrorist cells that spread there. Rather, they tend to reinforce them and even rekindle what was dormant.
Netanyahu is a butcher who intends to decimate the region to distract what falls on him and Trump, in an almost identical way, is someone who despises intelligence services, diplomacy and everything that is advisable in the caution that should be exercised in that region. It will not be a detail that the war was started by those on the Western side.
With the issue of using the Lajes Base and the USA as an aggressor state, Portugal placed itself on the sidelines of one of the biggest challenges in the relevance of the EU: the rehabilitation of multilateralism and International Law. We have lost space to the recurring criticism of the Union’s lack of political strength and autonomy. How can this be demanded from here? It is true that the Portuguese Government does not participate in the attack, but politically the response is insufficient in relation to Lajes. We don’t even fit in pragmatically. If it is true that we probably do not run the risk of being hit by a missile, it is also true that asymmetric warfare could reveal itself through other means and compromise us.
We learn nothing from History. The result of the invasion of Iraq on the margins resulted in a devastated country, lasting regional instability and the strengthening of extremist dynamics that still shape the Middle East today.
In Afghanistan, two decades of intervention resulted in a return to the starting point, with more than two million deaths and incalculable financial costs.
Externally promoted regime changes, no matter how dark and bloodthirsty it may be – and Iran’s is the worst – produce disastrous effects. Ignoring this collective memory is a luxury that Europe cannot afford. Much less a State like Portugal. By avoiding any political statement, the Government weakens Portuguese relevance and contributes to what is left: an EU without strategic weight.
Small states do not gain influence through subservient alignment, but through the consistency of the principles they defend. If we want a Europe with its own voice, we must start by exercising it. Otherwise, we will continue to complain about European fragility while, voluntarily, we are today the main promoter.
Let us look at our neighbor and understand how lucidity, principles, and realpolitik and the column in a time of Trumpist ignorance and in which the farce of the crazy rules.
We can be more than this.
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