It is worth recalling the words of Minister Joseph Beck today: “We in Poland do not know the concept of peace at all costs. There is only 1 thing in the lives of peoples, nations, and states invaluable. This thing is honor.”
Beck utilized to say those words in a planet that was just slipping into a chasm. Poland was arrogant at the time, but politically alone. The threat from Germany grew overnight, and allies made declarations which, as past has shown, they did not intend to fill. In view of the real power of the aggressor, Warsaw had honour, but had no means to defend it. And she paid the highest price for it.
Today Ukraine faces temptation and force very akin to the 1 that fell on Poland in 1939. Again, there are voices of honour, dignity and conflict "no substance what the price". But past is brutally clear: a country forced to choose between honor and surrender in fact chooses between defeat and humiliation. Therefore, Beck's words must be read present not as a pathetic declaration but as a warning.
Honor is needed — but honor itself will not defend any state. Alliances are needed to talk not only of values but besides of the real cost of their defence. due to the fact that past teaches 1 thing: the top national tragedies began erstwhile others were easy to request from the weaker to fight to the end — and it was just as easy to look distant erstwhile they came to pay for it by saying quietly the words of Lord Farquadd: “Many of you will perish, but it is simply a sacrifice I am prepared to make.”
Leszek Miller
Photo by X. V. Zelenski
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