How Ukraine can persuade the West to continue its support: effective strategies - Alexander Michelson

Meanwhile, our person in America, Professor Vasily Taras, shares some interesting insights:

"I had a week filled with presentations and discussions about Ukraine. Over the past three years, I have certainly done thousands of such presentations, discussions, and debates.

You constantly test what resonates and what doesn’t. You observe the audience and your interlocutors.

You notice which arguments make them doze off, which evoke sympathy and make them want to leave, and which awaken them, prompt donations, and even prepare them for action.

If the goal is to convince people that Ukraine needs support in terms of weapons, money, and even the deployment of Western troops, then based on my experience,

It doesn’t work:

• Talking about how Ukraine and its people are suffering; how cities are being destroyed by bombings; how many Ukrainian soldiers have died;
• Answering questions about how my parents, brothers, and sisters are doing, how difficult and poor their situation is;
• Bringing up the Budapest Memorandum and saying that you promised to protect Ukraine if anything happened;
• Asking for donations for humanitarian aid, reconstruction of Ukraine, or bulletproof vests for Ukrainian soldiers.

These arguments worked at the beginning of 2022. Today, however, the public reacts to such points much like we do to those asking for alms outside a church:

• Sometimes you feel pity, occasionally you toss a few coins;
• Most of the time, you walk past pretending not to notice;
• Some even respond harshly, saying things like "get a job" or "I’ll give you something, but only if you buy cigarettes or even drugs."

What works:

• Starting with the phrase "I am from Ukraine, but I won’t say a word about my feelings towards Ukraine, or about my parents and friends there. Why should you care about the fate of my parents and friends?" — this immediately wakes them up. "Moreover, I probably have lived in the U.S. long enough because today I will speak solely from the perspective of my bank account in an American bank and my safety in my American home. You should care only about your wallet and your safety. We are serious people: all this mushy stuff about values and principles" — that’s not for us. The audience definitely wakes up, some start grumbling, and in private conversations try to interrupt.
• "If I could just close my eyes and forget about Ukraine, I might do so. But I can’t do that. Not because I feel pain for Ukraine. But because I fear that if I close my eyes to Ukraine today, tomorrow I will have to pay for the landing of American troops in Normandy."

Perhaps even I myself, along with you and you (pointing to younger individuals in the audience) and your son and yours (pointing to older individuals) will have to land on those beaches. And that is costly. Very costly. And it could even be very painful." The audience begins to grasp where I’m heading, and they listen with curiosity.

• "This war is much bigger than Ukraine. Ukraine in this war is merely the first three days of a long-standing conflict. A small step that doesn’t warrant attention."
• "This is not a war of Russia against Ukraine."
• "Putin deserves credit: he has always been very open about his vision of the world and plans. There’s no need to think. Just listen. For instance, his Munich speech in 2007."

In it, he effectively declared war on the West. He stated that:

• "The leading countries do not respect us and do not take our interests into account;
• You have taken from us what rightfully belongs to us, where our language, culture, and interests lie;
• We tried to resolve everything peacefully, but you left us no choice; we must take it by force;
• Pack your things and get out to the borders of our former empire."

In which he practically repeated, word for word, another Munich speech.

That of another dictator, who also complained about having parts of his empire and sphere of influence unjustly taken from him. He also spoke of "historical justice" and "past greatness."

• To call the war in Ukraine a "Russian-Ukrainian war" is akin to labeling World War II in 1938-1939 as a "German-Czech," "German-Austrian," or "German-Polish" war. There was the Anschluss of Austria. There was the seizure of the Sudetenland. Under the pretext of protecting the German-speaking population and restoring historical justice. There was the invasion of Poland. Both of my grandfathers met the Germans in the trenches on September 1, 1939. But we do not concern ourselves with those small "local conflicts." We refer to them as World War II."
• "If I gave you a time machine and you could speak with Chamberlain and Roosevelt in 1939, how would you advise them to respond to the Anschluss of Austria? The Sudetenland?"

Chamberlain and Roosevelt decided not to escalate. They did not provide weapons to Poland for defense.

When Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill, Britain tried to stop Germany. However, the U.S. attempted to avoid escalation until the third year of the war. To sit it out.

Did you know that Churchill spent more time in the U.S. than in Britain in 1939, begging for help? And he did not receive it. When the U.S. agreed to assist Britain, they did so through Canada.

They were sending planes to the Canadian border. Fuel was drained. Canadians would haul them across the border and then send them from there to Britain. To prevent the U.S. from getting directly involved in confrontation with Germany. Because that would lead to a World War. They wanted to sit it out behind the Atlantic River. Naive.

At that time, anti-war rallies were taking place in U.S. cities. People criticized Roosevelt for spending money on foreign wars.

They argued that giving weapons to Britain would only prolong the war.

• And the chief automaker in the U.S., Henry Ford, sang odes to Hitler… Sound familiar?
• "If you had a time machine and could talk to Roosevelt in 1938, what would you advise him?"
• "Back then, the U.S., Britain, and France thought that if they forgave Hitler for the Sudetenland, Austria, and Poland — he would calm down."
• "Now the U.S., Britain, and France think that if they forgive Putin for Georgia, Crimea, and Donbas — he will be satisfied and stop. Did he stop?"
• "The fundamental difference between then and now is that back then Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and France all fell within a few days. And then German troops stretched from Norway to Romania, from Italy to the USSR, with imperial plans reaching from Portugal to Japan.
• Including the U.S. — if you remember Pearl Harbor at a time when the U.S. was maintaining neutrality. They did not manage to sit it out."
• "This time, Ukraine was also given three days. And next would be the rest of Georgia, several Stans, the Baltics, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Russian TV spoke of Lisbon."
• "By the end of 2022, battles would have been fought in the EU. Or perhaps they wouldn’t have been fought at all. A relaxed and cowardly Europe might have seemed to surrender without a fight, like France once did. Because it would have been overwhelmed not only by the Russian horde but also by millions of Ukrainians, and later by Poles and Balts, whom the RF would have taken under their wing."
• "And by 2024, American troops would be landing somewhere in Normandy under machine-gun fire. Who among us would be on that beach? Or would we be too old, and our sons would be landing instead?"
• "But strangely enough, that small, corrupt, impoverished Ukraine did not fall in three days.
• It did not fall in three weeks. Or in three months. Or in three years. It draws from its Cossack and Uppsala blood."
• "And for three years now, we have been going to work, attending conferences, and engaging in intellectual discussions in warm rooms instead of cold Normandy beaches."

Usually, by this point, there is silence in the hall. It’s time to wake up….

• "Stop, for God's sake, asking Ukraine to thank you for Western assistance.
• Thank Ukraine for, for a few pennies, a fraction of your budget, not even the whole budget, just a fraction of the Pentagon's budget, they are fighting for us so we can sit here sipping coffee with croissants and having intelligent discussions." Here, the use of the word "God" helps to jolt the audience out of their comfort zone.
• "What the hell with Chamberlain in