Originally at NYT’s via archive.ph
Disclaimer: I’m not a fan of the Pope. Nor am I taken with his alleged celebrity (the state of being well known). What is interesting to me is that someone well known, with a very large following would say these words aloud. Words that make sense in this situation.
My husband has often said sometimes to win, you have to lose. For Ukraine, acknowledging loss and negotiating a settlement is winning. It’s saving lives. It’s saving something for the future.
This is a nation that is kidnapping people off the streets for military service. Those that can flee are still doing so. They’ve sent women, the elderly and handicapped people to fight.
Their economy is in shambles. Why? Britain and the US used them as proxy. And Ukrainian leadership used it’s own people largely to line their own pockets. The corruption is over the top in Ukraine. None of this had to happen.
It’s worth noting that Pope Francis uttered these words in February. It is now March and this interview will be aired soon. The situation in Ukraine has worsened. Making the interview more timely than ever!
Francis used the term white flag in a television interview taped in February with the Swiss television channel RSI. The topic of the interview was the color white. An interviewer asked Francis if he believed that in Ukraine there was the need to “surrender, the white flag in this case,” or if such a capitulation would only legitimize the actions of strongmen.
According to footage of the interview provided by the public broadcaster, which is to be aired later this month, Francis responded by saying the fear of encouraging the aggressor was “one interpretation, it’s true.But I believe that the strongest is the one who sees the situation, thinks of the people, and has the courage of the white flag, and to negotiate.”
Francis calls negotiation “the courage to not bring a country to its suicide.”
Francis said that today “one can negotiate with the help of international powers, they are there, no? That word negotiate, it is a courageous word.”
He added, “When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate.”
“And you are ashamed of yourself?” for negotiating, he continued, adding that if instead, one continued on the same path, “how many dead, and then? In the end it will be worse still.”“Today, for example,” he went on, “in the war in Ukraine, there are many that want to be mediators, no? Turkey for example. Do not be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.”
Turkey ready to host Ukraine-Russia peace summit, says Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose NATO-member country has sought to balance its close relations with both Ukraine and Russia, offered during a visit Friday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to host a peace summit between the two countries