WERE WE APPEASERS?

It's all in the eyes of the beholder.

The Advocacy Newsletter: Connecting.... the Dots

Volume 8     Number 392

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Several months ago, I wrote a laudatory essay on our support of Ukraine from the vicious Russian attack. But I have reappraised our behavior. Other information has come to my attention that puts a different spin on events. This time it isn’t as favorable. There is substantial evidence that we acted as appeasers in the lead-up to the Ukrainian/ Russian combat.

Because we in the U.S. as the leaders of the free world, failed to stop this menace years ago, when it would have been much easier, the result is a worldwide disaster with the threat of a world war looming. This is because we lacked the will to do it. Despite some recent action on our part, it can be claimed our response, and the rest of the free world’s, was inadequate in the face of the Russian threat to the Ukraine. In my book, this amounts to appeasement. And now the Ukrainians are paying an enormous price, and the rest of the world trembles with tension and fear.

Our past willingness to use forceful actions short of war had been sapped by recent stupid military forays. There was an over-twenty-year disaster in Afghanistan, long after we had originally gone in there chasing Osama bin Laden for 9/11. Then came an invasion and occupancy of Iraq, seeking Saddam Hussein’s non-existent nuclear capabilities. Mr. Putin must have sensed that the American people and our leaders had no stomach for further warlike adventures. This emboldened his actions.

But once again, we refuse to learn the hard lessons from history. Look at President Putin’s proclamations over the years. His grandiose plans are clear: recreating the post-World War II Soviet Union–or call it the Soviet Empire. Swift action could have nixed this in the bud before he began to flex his muscles. But Chechnya wasn’t on our map, and Crimea and Syria were rife with complications. So we did nothing.

Why Ukraine now? It lacks the resources like oil, gas, and minerals that Russia is already rich in. But when you look at a map, there is Ukraine with the port city of Odessa, right on the warm waters of the Black Sea, which opens onto the Mediterranean, gateway to greater influence in the Middle East. Skip all the baloney about cultural and historic ties between Russia and Ukraine, entry to the Black Sea is what Putin wants.

The origin of all this madness had its seeds when Putin lost his job as a KGB agent in East Germany in 1990, when Russia voluntarily walked away from this satellite country, along with 13 others. He admired Joseph Stalin and all he stood for, and felt that successors like Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin were weak, ineffectual and had betrayed their country by giving away the Soviet Union. Eating away at his psyche, this is what a psychoanalyst would say is at the crux of his behavior today.

Putin must have disregarded the fact that the Communist model and economy had collapsed under its own weight, after three-quarters of a century in power. And so poor KGB agent Putin lost his spying job in East Germany. He has held a lifelong grudge and desire to recreate those lush days.

At this very same time, another tyrant in the near East, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, was embarking on an incursion into Kuwait, in a grab at their oil riches. This time, the rest of the world, led by the U.S. quickly responded. In what seemed like a nano-second; a United Nations force quickly swept Iraq out of the invaded country and destroyed Hussein’s pretensions. That is the way one deals with tyrants. Of course, dealing with an atomic power is another matter, but the need for a robust response is constant.

 Putin had his eye on Ukraine all along. So, he began to see what he could get away with. There were notable forays into the Crimea and Georgia in 2008, and into Eastern Ukraine in 2014. Then there were diversions, like the carpet bombing of Aleppo, Syria, Russian interference in U.S. elections, attacks on our computers, and attacks on Russian dissidents in the UK. The United Sates and the rest of the West mostly did nothing. There were some mild protests and sanctions at best, which Putin just shrugged off. Why would he have expected anything different for the latest attack on Ukraine? The only thing that bullies like Putin recognize is power, and he had yet to see any of it displayed.

These initial probes were a forewarning of what we are dealing with now. A more substantial response would have prevented today’s occurrence. So, in the last ten years Russa increased its position through aggressive actions. It substantially built up its military capabilities. Russia was able to put itself on sounder economic footing, hopefully preventing the effects of future sanctions. It did this by becoming a major supplier of energy, oil and gas, and wheat to Europe. The world just watched.

NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the primary reason it exists, lest we forget, was to prevent territorial incursions by Russia. After World War II, the Soviet Union, in a naked attempt to gather power, had gobbled up all of Eastern Europe into its orbit and blockaded West Berlin. It was also making eyes at Italy and Greece. The 1949 agreement, with Russia in mind, said “an armed attack against one or more of them… shall be considered an attack against them all.” Following such an attack, each ally would take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force,” in response. Article 3 “laid the foundation for cooperation in military preparedness between the Allies.”

Starting in 1949 with 12 core countries, NATO, over the years, has reached a count of 30. Much of the expansion was eastward in the late 1990s and early 2000s.The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on Russia’s western border were added in 2005, without a peep from Mr. Putin.

Starting in 2008 Ukraine has also wanted into NATO. But Putin has come to see the Ukraine particularly as part of Russia’s sphere of influence and has objected to Ukraine’s addition to NATO. To their discredit, the United States and NATO have declined to admit Ukraine because they were not anxious to rouse “the bear.” Since one of his current demands is again that NATO not admit Ukraine, Mr. Putin is still fearful of such an occurrence.

If we had not been “chicken,” an appeaser, and done just that a long time ago, we wouldn’t be dealing with the current situation. After all, the Ukraine is a free country, entitled to form an alliance with whomever they choose, and Russia shouldn’t have been obeyed in their demand. In fact, if we were to make the Ukraine a member of NATO today, given our alliance that says “an attack on one is attack on all,” the Russians would probably pack up and go home.

Later, in 2021, when a Russian attack seemed imminent, the United States and NATO were still tip-toeing around Ukraine’s request for more arms. This was penny-pinched by both the Trump and Biden administrations. Also, President Zelensky’s request for more advanced armaments was denied because they could be viewed as an offensive threat by Putin. For goodness sakes, what did they think, that Ukraine was about to invade Russia?

Seeing what is going on in the Ukraine now, we are trying to make amends. President Biden got Congress to cough up a robust $ 40 billion in military and humanitarian aid. The amount of sanctions by the United States and almost all nations have been substantial and unanticipated. These must surely have Putin and Russia reeling. Also, allied forces from the United States and other NATO countries are being dispatched to countries bordering Russia to ensure that Russia has no further expansion plans.

On March 7th, President Biden at last halted the importing of oil from Russia. This was still in effect because the president feared a blow-back from the American public, because of an anticipated spike in the price of oil. Big deal. Oil prices and other inflationary prices are here regardless of what is happening in the Ukraine. And a little sacrifice on our part is appropriate. The delay in doing this seemed nuts, as Russia was using that income to help pay for the war on Ukraine.

The actions of President Zelensky and the Ukranian people have been extraordinary. They are reminiscent of Britain in the early years of World War II, when overwhelming German forces seemed imminent. Spurred on by the gallant Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and reinforced by America’s lend-lease program, the British bravely fought on until we entered the war and turned the tide.

The surprising success of the initial rebuff of Russian forces in the short run will probably enrage a madman like Putin, redoubling his efforts to bring about a hollow victory. Of late the Russians have been making inroads in eastern Ukraine. They are conducting massive artillery barrages of both military and civilian targets. Now, despite the NATO efforts, Ukrainians are lacking firepower and this has not been forthcoming fast enough from the West. President Zelensky is still adamant about fighting. Hopefully the Ukrainians will make Putin pay a big enough price to enable a peace treaty, one that will allow Ukraine to retain its independence.

But there will always be a lingering “could have, should have, would have,” to the initial American response to the Ukrainian situation. True, we didn’t roll over, the way Chamberlain did to appease Hitler. But it is likely that if we had done more, back when Putin started in, Ukraine wouldn’t be in the pickle it is in now. Dictators like Putin are bullies and if you stand up to them, they back off. We didn’t do that and now we are paying the price.

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“The image of Russian troops pouring into Ukraine and encircling military units in Crimea has been a wake-up call that will reverberate for a generation.”

--Vincente Ponti, Former Prime Minister of Rumania

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