Call the meeting NOW OUR PRESIDENTs

“You have not had an accident, Sir, you have had a car crash”. Thus spoke the policeman that attended the only car mishap I was ever involved in. He was quite right. Before the investigation into what happened, ahead of insurance claims and possible court cases, the officer had said quite simply “…you have had a car crash”. Acceptance of this fact was key to the emotional and physical recovery of both parties involved.

Missiles landing on Polish soil and killing Polish people constitute a crash, whoever’s fault it was. If an accident, it is even more frightening than if an intentional act of war. To stir the world’s media, and through them the world’s emotions, so dangerously is no better than to do so with intent to provoke WWIII. All parties to the event are responsible, all must attend to the damage.

Presidents Xi and Biden have just been meeting, ‘vowing’ (whatever that means today) peace not war for the world. Now is the moment to see whether they meant it. They must summon Putin and Zelenskyy immediately to a neutral place to put an end to this war. Forget the blame, forget the intent, ignore the culpability, just stop the war. The world cannot afford it, humanity cannot survive it, the development of a world culture of cooperation will be as naught if it continues. The weight of the future lies on the shoulders of two people who claim to be leaders.

Let’s see if they are.

For humanity, it could be the biggest single act in the history of the world to stabilise our growing population and our desperate climate. Politically, the President who initiates this will hold the world political stage for at least five years.

You and I will be able to get on with lives that matter, that we enjoy and that mean something.

CALL THE MEETING NOW, OUR PRESIDENTS

John Bittleston