Crash of men's rhetoric
They both need new vessels for their old wine.
It doesn't happen every day that the rhetoric has been intentionally and publicly used by leaders of nations in the world to attack each other and to counterattack each other like US President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin just some days ago.
| US President Joe Biden (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Photo: AFP/VNA |
It doesn't happen every day that leaders of nations have intentionally and publicly used the rhetoric in the world to attack each other and counterattack each other like US President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin just some days ago.
The stumbling stone was the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine. President Biden traveled to Europe, visited Ucraine for the first time since the war began in Ucraine, and came for the second time to Poland in one year's time. In Poland, he made his much-expected speech covering the first year of the war in Ukraine, not long after President Putin delivered his 18th Address of the State of the Union in Russia.
It was indeed an unprecedented war of words, an unrestrained verbal tit-for-tat between these two men. They used the same kind and extent of rhetoric to accuse each other of letting the war in Ukraine having been unleashed. For both, facts and figures weren't worth mentioning, only leading the public opinion counts. Not arguing and justifying but explaining and choosing words were their preferred weapons. It was the sidereal hour of their rhetoric.
They have had to exploit their rhetoric because all that they intended to convey to the audience in the world weren't new, and they needed new messages. Wasn't it so? They claimed that the other side was wrong. It was one's often used deterrence against the other. It was both firm confidence in their final victory, whether it would be military or political, in the Ukraine war. They both need new vessels for their old wine.
The recent crash of their rhetoric indicates the dissent between them is further deepening, and its overcoming is becoming more and more impossible. They deliver unambiguous proof that they already have bound their political fate and future with the war's outcome in Ukraine. The will be a presidential election in both the US and Russia in 2024 and it is now already more than most probable that both would run for the presidency again.
The bad news is that any political or diplomatic solution for ending the war in Ukraine would be impossible when the US and Russia stay determined to win the final victory in Ukraine at any price. That is why the war there will continue and the story on the crash of men's rhetoric too.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by Ambassador Tran Duc Mau are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Hanoi Times.
