Longtime readers of my column will know that I have had a lifetime interest in recent German history, and as I see Russian troops massing on the Russian-Ukraine border, I cannot help but see a direct parallel to Adolf Hitler’s demand for conquest under the guise of “Lebensraum.” Vladimir Putin has his own excuse for subjugating his neighbors, but it all amounts to the same thing: The human desire to control others.
So, as the centuries roll, history continues to repeat itself, and we see events taking place today, similar to those of the 1930s with Hitler, as Russian troops mass on the Ukraine border. Hitler assured the world that if he could just have certain concessions, war could be avoided. Well, the West took the bait offered by Hitler to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and on 30 September 1938, he assured us that there would be “peace for our time.” Clearly, peace did not follow Chamberlain’s attempt at appeasement and peace will not follow any attempt at appeasing Putin in his efforts to reestablish the Soviet Union.
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If Putin gets the Ukraine, next he will put Germany, and ultimately much of Europe under his heel.
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We in the West find ourselves in a precarious position because our NATO ally, Germany, has been drinking Russia’s Kool-Aid for so many years that she finds herself in a terrible fix. She now buys so much natural gas from Russia that she fears that she would find far too many homes cold and factories idle if she now took a hard line against Russia’s threats to invade the Ukraine.
Many pundits believe that Putin is not just wrangling for a chunk of the Ukraine, or all of it, but rather to separate Europe from the U.S. and emasculate NATO. As the West now faces off Russia at the Ukrainian border, what are we to do? Fortunately, President Biden is no longer inclined to fall for Russia’s sweet words, and there appears to be a growing resolve in Germany to reassess its relationship to Russia,but it won’t be easy now that they have dug themselves such a deep hole.
Germany’s thinking, up to this point, appears to be that they can buy cheap gas from Russia to feed their very prosperous economy without any consequences to themselves. Many countries in Europe disagree, especially those countries who were under the thumb of Russia as part of the former USSR. In their trade with Russia, Germany has been dancing with the devil, as though the chickens would never come home to roost.
Certainly, Germany has no vision of themselves ever being under Russia’s heel. They would be loath to give up their Mercedes and BMWs, and affluent lifestyle for the poverty with which the Russians live (Russia’s total economy approximates that of Spain but spreads it among three times as many people).
The situation on the Russian-Ukraine border appears to be leading to no place good. How does the West get out of this fix? For my part, I’m convinced that Chamberlain’s appeasement solution will only make matters much worse, so we stand up to Russia and support the Ukraine. As a NATO partner, we insist that Germany relinquish her dependence on Russian energy. It will be difficult for a time, Germany has laid herself bare to Russia, and now Russia is taking full advantage of the situation.
Truly, Germany is at a crossroads; she can bite the bullet, and renounce her dependence on Russian energy, or she can continue to lose her freedom, and become ever more subject to the Russian devil. She is at an inflection point, which puts the West at an inflection point. Unfortunately, the decision she makes will have dire consequences for the world, and Europe in particular.
If Chamberlain had not appeased Hitler, the world would not have suffered the devastation brought by World War II. If we have the backbone not to appease Putin, perhaps we will spare ourselves similar suffering.
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From the Bible: The whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Galatians 5:14.
