The White Flag Of… What??

You would think that, every now and then, Frankie manages to say one thing right. Wrong.

The guy is so hopelessly dumb, that even on the rare occasions when he might actually say something sensible, he manages of screw it up big time.

Frankie has told THE Ukraine that it is time for the “white flag of negotiation”.

Problem: the white flag is a symbol of surrender, not of negotiation. Therefore, Francis’ invitation to negotiate (which is, in itself, sensible) was totally botched as it sent the message that the Ukrainians need to surrender to the Russians.

Whatever you think of the Ukrainian army (the rampant neonazism, or the genocide of civilians) one thing that cannot be said is that they aren’t though soldiers. They are Russians after all, and Russians are a very, very tough bunch. The invitation to surrender was destined to fall on deaf ears, and the invitation to negotiate will not be taken seriously if it accompanied by such an humiliation.

For once, Zelensky said it right: a guy living thousands of km away has no clue of the cultural environment he is addressing.

Francis could have simply encouraged the Ukraine to seek a honourable peace that can be used as a basis for future prosperity, as so many before them have done (Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan come to mind, but I would not have mentioned them). He could have invited them to look at the realities on the ground with a cool head, and asked them to reflect on the long-term effects of insisting in looking for a solution that, realistically, is not going to happen. He could have pointed out to the grave consequences for the Ukraine in term of sheer fertility and perpetuation of their culture if they end this war with a dramatic loss of man and women, which add to the low number of Ukrainians in fertile age.

He could have approached this from a lot of angles. But no, it had to be the stupidest of all stupid slogans, the “white flag of negotiation”.

In a sense, this is consoling.

If you really have to have an evil pope, it’s much better to have him dumb.