“Ceterum censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam”, said Cato the censor after his mission to Carthage as a delegate sent from Rome in a vain attempt to arbitrate peace between the Carthaginians and Masinissa, King of Numidia. We pass it down as “Carthage must be destroyed” in reality it was the formula with which, after his return from Carthage, Cato ended every speech given to the Roman Senate whatever the topic discussed and which we could interpret: “In addition to all that of which I have spoken to you, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed.”
In short, after knowing the facts and the protagonists, Cato had determined that the only option, to safeguard the security of Rome and lasting peace, was the complete destruction of Carthage with the third and definitive Punic War. He didn’t want a “cold war”, he didn’t care about “collateral damage”, he didn’t want a “special military operation” or a “proxy war”, he didn’t want to drop “smart bombs”. What Cato was looking for was the solution to a problem for which all possible “peaceful” options had been explored: Cato wanted to achieve peace and security for Romethrough the definitive defeat of Carthage.
Today we seem to have forgotten the objective of every waror the search for a new balance after economic growth/degrowth or a decline in the birth rate, territorial claims or religious claims have broken the previous balance. It is the search for this new balance which is called peace and it can only be achieved by governments and men who are determined and firm in their decisions. In recent months I have often asked myself why everyone expertly informs us of the tragedies of war, while no one seems to see the disasters of fake peace: growth of armed terrorist factions capable of infecting entire nations by depriving them of sovereignty (Houthy, Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban, etc.); dragging out wars for years, alternating fake truces and resurgences of violence through attacks, bombings and infiltrations; terrorism used as a global weapon; migrations generated by regional conflicts; massacres as a tool to resolve tribal or religious clashes (Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Syria, etc.). This is the drama we have been experiencing for years, which careless commentators and politicians insist on calling “peace” and would like to restore and preserve.
In the face of any tragedy and the consequent reaction, the refrain is always the same, “de escalation” and “peace” at any cost, obstinately ignoring that what these sophisticated analysts call peace today would mean the end of Israel and the enslavement of ‘Ukraine to Russian neo-imperialism. To be clearer, a new definitive attempt at pogrom against the Jewish people and the new subjugation of the Slavic populations to the power of Moscow after the imperial and communist ones. How can the theft of territory suffered by Ukraine be called peace or the incessant bombing suffered by Israelhow one can invoke de escalation in the face of an extraordinarily stronger or incredibly more numerous enemy, how one can confuse the aggressor and the attacked.
Today, Ukrainians and Israelis are the outposts of a West that fights against evil regimes and ideologies, and if they were to succumb, it will be up to others to fight for our freedom, until the moment when it will be up to each of us or our children, because that is how they are wars and if they are not ended they spread like a tumor fueled by resentment and hope of prevailing. And if I talk about evil regimes and ideologies I say it as a Westerner who believes he has to make a choice, because this is our duty as citizens, support, even by force, our values and interests. This does not mean not judging what is right or wrong, it means doing so aware of the consequences of our choices and the legacy of our history.
Today Iran and Russia are the enemies of the West and Benjamin Netanyahu And Volodymyr Zelensky they are the most recent protagonists of the same struggle as Cato: the search for peace, first for Rome and today for the entire West. Because when the war has reached the level that is before our eyes, the only option is to have the strength to finish itwhile the most serious mistake is to suspend or deescalate it as they try to make us believe.
Let’s stop with the deescalatory wokismlet’s stop listening to Orsini or Albanese, let’s avoid causing Ukraine to lack supplies whatever the outcome of the US presidential elections, let’s state clearly in the Italian Parliament and in the European institutions that these conflicts must be won, let’s put an end to the hypocrisy of UNRWA by stopping funding it. It would be nice to transform these conflicts into an opportunity for the European Union to establish itself as a political and military protagonist. But if perhaps we have the strength, we certainly lack the courage.
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