Merkel and Hollande went together to see the president of Ukraine and the Russian dictator, in a last ditch effort before Putin sends his tanks across southern Ukraine (after a barrage of Russian rockets killed scores of civilians in the large Ukrainian town of Mariopol).
The meeting with Putin was icy. Defeated by the Russians, the Ukrainians have to negotiate. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees are evacuating. Putting requested a meeting with Merkel and Hollande alone. He wants the large city of Mariopol (so that, in a few months, he can dash towards Crimea, and then Odessa). Putin also wants twice the territory his agents control in Ukraine. We have seen this sort of methods in Munich, 1938.
OK, let’s be the devil’s advocate. Let’s talk in the name of peace. What does peace fear? War. The president of France just said there was war in Ukraine (the definition of a war is 1,000 killed; more than 6,000 were killed in the war in Ukraine, so far).
What Putin Wants: Russia, the Big Country. World War Would Be Even Better
“Pacifists” pontificate that no French, German or American, should die for Ukraine: Putin wants Ukraine, let him have it. Who cares about Ukraine? Sounds good, elevated. Peace will follow. If it sounds good, peace ought to follow: that’s pacifying logic. Logic done with a pacifier.
Then “pacifists” preen, deeply self-satisfied with their own goodness, friendliness, generosity, and general standing as higher human beings. They look themselves in the mirror, they love what they see. They call themselves progressive, and view others as imperialists, hopeless colonialists, violent serial offenders. If only the rest of humanity could be so detached, as they, the pacifists, themselves are.
But then the job of the philosophers is to be critical. It is never to opt for the easy way out. Philosophers never follow the herd, stampeding towards happiness. Philosophers ask: why does Putin want Ukraine so much? Putin says Ukraine was always Russian, that Russia owned all of Ukraine, or, at least, half of Ukraine, etc.
These are enormous lies: Ukraine was highly civilized, a millennium ago, and owned Crimea then, when Moscow was not even on any map. Moscow literally did not exist then. Descendants of Ukrainians and Vikings had not gone that far to the east.
In truth, it’s the other way around: demographically, civilizationally, linguistically, historically Russia is a colony of Ukraine. Russia is a poorly educated brat.
And not just that: Russia is, arguably, a degenerate form. Ukraine resisted the Mongols, and got defeated and devastated by them. Moscow then made peace, and collaborated, with the Mongols, and became like them. Just look at Putin, and in particular his slanted eyes: obviously his ancestors were in the sack with Mongols. Maybe Putin is so anxious to show himself a Russian patriot, because, like Lenin, he has slanted eyes? Maybe he wants to show that he is of pure, Russian, white essence?
This mock racist argument is not funny anymore when Putin’s most savage behavior is contemplated. Annexing territory is exactly what Mongols did.
If pacifists want to give Ukraine to Putin, they have to answer this: why?
Just because he wants it? So when the next Mafioso comes along and wants to kill ten million people, just because he wants it, they are going to agree?
At this point, our friends the pacifists look rather criminal. Let’s press them on. Let’s ask: ‘Does Putin wants all this property for the same reason as Hitler wanted the property of the Jews in 1938?”
What, say our friends the pacifists: history is not their forte. Indeed, Hitler attacked the Jews because his massive militarization program had impoverished Germany. He needed wealth and to look victorious.
So Putin is stealing Ukraine, because he wants to look like the one who brings, gifts, the one who augments. This is so true, Octavian, Caesar grand nephew, and heir, was named “Augustus”, the one who augments.
Putin augmented Russia, already Earth’s largest country, by a very long shot, by annexing Crimea. That made him “Augustus”. And 85% Russians now love him, because Putin has augmented their tiny minds. In part thanks to relentless propaganda.
We have seen that before, when all Germans loved Hitler, the more he used his propaganda on them. And even after millions of Germans had been killed, thanks to Hitler.
To be loved more, maybe Putin should kill more people, and even more Russians.
What else? Putin is remaking his entire military, all the way to nuclear forces, as if he knew world war was coming. It cost a gigantic amount of resources. So Russia is getting impoverished, and Putin has to look as the “Augmenter” the hard way: through massive theft.
This is exactly the politico-psychological process Hitler went through.
“Pacifists” said: let Hitler have the Jews, that’s what he wants. No French, British, let alone American, should die for Jews.
Hitler wanted the Austrian Republic? Let him have it. After all, Austria spoke German. Austrian Jews such as Freud could always go live in England. Less fortunate ones could go to Italy, or France.
So hear this, pacifists: there was a matter of principle: can we let the leader of a great nation use massive lethal force to steal massive property? Can we tolerate crimes against humanity?
And think a bit, pacifists: if stealing other countries alleviate the pain the attacking dictator would otherwise suffer, where does it stop?
Putin is the first to annex territory in Eurasia, since Hitler.
Some warn: don’t make Putin mad, he is Hitler, with nukes. Those who give the mad man a reason to attack are maniacs, culprit of war mongering.
Such pacifists are not really even arguing they are pacifists, just that they are cowards, and that cowardice is a most admirable strategy. Those peace mongers are not just dumb and self-satisfied, as usual pacifists are, but they aggravate their case by being cowardly, to the point of unreason.
Not provoking a mad man is no strategy. The question is why is the mad man becoming ever more mad? As I said above, it’s because the economy of his militarizing dictatorship is going down. He has to militarize, to create the impression that Russia, by far the largest country on Earth, is under attack: that activates the fascist reflex. All the Russian baboons then gather behind their chief, and do exactly what their chief is telling them to do. This insures the power of the chief.
Putin is sick, he has to be cured.
Question: why was Putin not acting like Hitler before? Because, before, he was afraid. Afraid of the power of the West. Now he is not. (I explained it had to do with not eliminating the criminal Assad personally; that too, let to the rise of extreme Islam fanatics; but there are other factors, such as a diminution of the military capability of the West, greatly caused by USA stealth planes not working, and Europeans doing austerity on defense… Except for neutral Sweden, which noticed Putin’s madness).
Thus, to make Putin stop, one has to scare him.
Pacifism means to look scary. The Romans put it this way: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.
Some will say it’s too scary to try to scare Putin.
Why?
Because, because, because, well, Putin behaves like Hitler, whine the “pacifists”.
Then the question is this: did appeasers not learn history? Trying to make friends with evil does not just endanger peace, it’s a crime.
ELECTING EVIL IN ISRAEL? NOT CLEAR:
Israel is a case in many ways opposite to Russia. Israel is tiny, Russia 70% larger than the three largest countries after it (Canada, USA, China). Israel was founded by people whose country (Israel) was stolen by the fascist Roman state, as punishment for rebellion… But then the Catholics, such as “Saint” Augustine made a morality from what was meant as non-permanent situation.
Netanyahu (nicknamed “Bibi”) is running for re-election, and may well win. With his reassuring baritone. His brother, a crack commando commander, was the only fatality in the hyper daring Entebbe raid he led. Bibi is sort of extreme, he tends to King David’s Israel, the Greater Israel, with all the pesky Palestinians somewhere else. If wars come long and thick enough, the Greater Israel may well become a reality.
Differently from Putin’s mad dream of reconstituting what he calls the “Big Country” makes survival sense. Israel, as it is, is 1,100 times smaller than the empire Putin dreams aloud of.
Bibi can be a baby, as long as Arabs stay even more infantile. As it is, this cannot end well, so the party of Armageddon may as well rule. As long as some participant(s) is(are) looking for a final solution, the others may as well. One cannot make peace alone. But one can make war alone. Bibi is occupying a vacuum.
As long as Israel has good reason to fear for its survival, Bibi and, or, his ideas, and moods will rule. It’s a matter of survival, the best reason there ever was, for most people, most of the time.
Jordan got seriously angry against Daesh (aka “Islamic state”) and conducted air raids against it, after its young F16 pilot with green eyes got burned alive.
Jordan’s anger is healthy. It’s a change of values. The Middle East will bloom, if it aligns its values on the best ones the West ever offered. Look at China: why does it do so well? Because China adopted the high performance aspect of learning long championed, and monopolized, by the West.
Ultimately, the Chinese effort will fail, or, as in Germany a century ago, will have horribly deviant consequences, if it does not embrace the learning of criticism, that is, the learning of going meta, relative to the knowledge we have.
In either case, the West has to remember history, and roll back an educational system where real data is shown, and absorbed (especially at the meta level).
Much of the rise of plutocrats (including increasingly crazed maniac as Putin) is caused by an overall lack of education and a decrease capability to ascertain causation.
When pacifists believe that burrowing their heads in the sand works best to remove threats, they just lack education. There cannot be moralization without education.
Patrice Ayme’
Tags: Hitler, Hollande, Israel, Kneel, Merkel, Netanyahu, Pacifism, Putin, Russia, Ukraine
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 
February 7, 2015 at 2:44 am |
Dear Patrice, To say the current Palestinian problem is essentially Ti. Flavius Vespasianus’ fault is a bit of a stretch. Things have happened since then.
But back to Ukraine. What do you want to happen? Send in US troops? How many? US Air force? What happens if US aircraft get downed? Where do you stop? What happens when the US body bags start arriving? The US is good at starting wars, but is not so good at finishing them in any satisfactory way. ISIS is a simple example of bad intentions going a lot worse. Remember, this won’t be quick and easy, and before you start calling Putin a fascist, check which lot of Ukrainians adapted the symbol of the SS division “Das Reich”.
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 4:37 am |
Pacifists are often wrong, in the places that let them free enough to express themselves. It is a paradox.
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 7:13 am |
Well they can’t express themselves in bellicose fascist regimes…
LikeLike
February 8, 2015 at 1:38 pm |
… or if kettled by police in lands that call themselves ‘free’.
There is no good without evil; and the labels are themselves self-appointed.
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 4:43 am |
Patrice said earlier in other essays, to sell weapons to Ukraine, apply sanctions, cut energetic ties to Russia.
Recently she suggested to rearm, to respond to Putin massive rearmament. That is what Sweden is doing. Sweden is not NATO.
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 7:07 am |
Actually the Jews were thrown out in the 140s, after the second Judaic war. Vespasian adopted Josephus, his commanding enemy. Although Simon was flogged to death on the Capitol (as richly deserved), the Jews of Israel, in the 70s were treated normally. Julian (360 CE) ordered resettlement and reconstruction of the Temple. The Catholics blocked that after Julian’s death in 363 CE. So the Catholics were really the problem, headed by that little turd, forgive my veracity, Augustine.
For Ukraine, it’s as GMax said. Merkel and Hollande were right to do what they did. It was timely and courageous. The trap is that Putin is asking for a gigantic territory (15% of Ukraine), and Mariopol. The latter is exactly Munich 1938 with the Sudeten.
What to do? Gain time, do not concede Mariopol, arm Ukraine. I don’t know what Hollande and Merkel (without staff) are telling Putin. It should be simple: attack Mariopol, you are at war.
Putin, of course, in the long run, will attack Mariopol. Simply it’s hard for him to do it now. So it’s a question of gaining time, while making it so that it will get harder.
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 7:12 am |
Dear Ian: ISIS has nothing much to do with the USA. It’s the usual suspects (Qatar, Saudis) plus remnants of Saddam army. The way out is to negotiate with the latter. But that’s impossible because of the negotiations with Iran (which has been allowed to bomb ISIS inside Iraq…)
A guy who has been officially in power for more than 16 years and has officially killed more than 100,000, plus control all the media, etc. certainly qualifies as a fascist. I do not look down to the fascist instinct, BTW. Democracies make the best fascists, when war is engaged.
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 3:51 pm |
Your invitation to comment box is headed, “What do you think?”, etc.
To be honest, I don’t know what to think in response to this post. Partly because six inches of rain in the last twenty-four hours have kept us focused on pragmatic issues such as has our creek bridge been damaged. Partly because I was born in London at the tail end of WWII. Partly because I don’t trust the voices of most politicians.
However, while fundamentally I believe peace is so much better than war, in my concerns over the volumes of recent rain lays my answer.
That being that when the consequential actions of anything threaten the safety and integrity of my loved ones I will not hesitate to protect said safety and integrity.
Hope that makes sense.
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 4:10 pm |
Well, Paul, this is indeed an experimental thinking site, all weird thoughts are welcome. What you said does make sense. As the heat content of the ocean and atmosphere augments, so does the capability of the air to carry water and steam (the latter water vapor being a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2). So storms are getting fiercer. With big heat in between: fewer, but bigger.
The behavior of Putin is a consequence of his establishment of a fossil fuel plutocracy (instead of a modern democracy). This has cornered him socio-economically, hence his present behavior.
Hitler was similarly constrained. Initially his urge to get to Poland came from the oil there. (Unfortunately for him, facing war with Britain and France, he had to make an alliance with Stalin, and Stalin got most of the oil fields… which he did not need. However then Stalin sent oil to Hitler, with which to invade all between Norway and Greece…)
LikeLike
February 7, 2015 at 5:10 pm |
Patrice
In the category of idle, weird thoughts, I was reading some stuff the other day on inertial confinement fusion. I don’t want to wander off into the weeds of tokamaks, ITER, solar, waves, and all that, but the fact is a lot of people are doing a lot of research and development on energy solutions. And I think eventually somebody is going to hit on something. I’m just not predicting what it’s going to be.
But when that happens, what happens to the petrol states like Russia and Saudi Arabia?
Roosevelt made a Faustian bargain with the Saudis – we assured their security in exchange for the oil. And a lot of money. But then the Saud family (it’s ONE family of rulers) got nervous about their Wahabi supporters and used a lot of that money to export the Wahabi firebrands and their poison throughout the Mideast (i.e. to keep them from stirring up trouble at home for the Sauds). And so we have this Islamic caliphate bullshit today, so the Saud rulers can sleep soundly.
The world price of oil is crippling Russia right now and our old friends the Saudis are doing nothing to get the price up. I don’t believe that’s an accident. But what about a world where we don’t have to put up with either the Saudis or the Russians because we don’t need their only product?
Is there a surprise game-changer in the wings with energy research? A disruptive technology coming? [Personally, I like to think of a sort of solar cell cheap wallpaper anybody can just spread out anywhere and harvest sunshine for electricity.]
The writer Ursula Le Guin gave a wonderful speech at the National Book Awards which included this:
” We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings.”
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/20/ursula-k-le-guin-national-book-awards-speech
And I would add the reign of King Oil.
LikeLike
February 8, 2015 at 12:43 am |
Dear John:
The research on Tokomak fusion would have been probably concluded successfully already if a single power (say France) had gone alone on an all-out effort. This is actually how ITER got started, with fanatical French directors and managers. But then austerity et in, and everybody jumped on board. The USA jumped in, then out, then in again… French directors were fired as dangerous fanatics. A Japanese was put in command, messing all, installing a clique. Crucial components are often made by several powers, each making a few… different diameter tubes, say, although they are all supposed to be the same.
The ISS has lots of nationalities, but ITER is the world’s record.
Anyway, after construction stalled, and the French Nuclear Security Agency blocked ITER (for security violations), a commission was named, and it recommended that the Jap director be fired. A FRENCH general manager was named (back to square one), somebody of immense experience.
It is certain that the initial ITER plan would have given a thermonuclear energy producing machine.
As it is, things have been learned, many surprising. JET (Joint European Torus) is being relaunched, and serves as an ITER pathfinder. JET results have changed the inner skin of ITER (Carbon does not work, but Beryllium does).
Indeed, the collapse of oil is a conspiracy:
I am sure Obama is on it… And clearly the Saudis are. But, more interestingly, how far does the plot goes through the plutocracy?
Reasoning: “Guys, the planet is exploding, from CO2, Putin is going critical, we can get some results by crashing the oil price.”
One would think a low oil price would augment CO2. Very short term, yes. Longer term, it could play the other way. Especially if one uses the occasion to augment fossil fuel, and carbon tax… AS ONE SHOULD (even The Economist adopted that old idea of mine, a few weeks ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Should the price of oil stay around $40 for, say, three years, Russia, and Putin, are going down for the count. Putin knows this, and is anxious to attack first.
Capitalism will, hopefully, not die. Quite the opposite. Capital and civilization are joined at the hip. However, the problem with banks, oil, or the military industrial, or health industrial complexes, is that private interests have captured the state.
We are quickly getting in position to eliminate oil. Research solar cells get 40% efficiency, satellite solar are not far behind: expensive, but cheap variants are appearing in the lab.
In a crash program, we could get thermonuclear fusion in 5 years, large scale, ITER style (smaller, very inefficient thermonuclear generators are already used in fancy airports to generate neutrons…)
PA
LikeLike
February 13, 2015 at 7:42 am |
Problem is that Europe is disunited. And as long as Europe needs fascists (USA) to stop a fascist (Putin), it can’t end well.
LikeLike
February 13, 2015 at 5:08 pm |
Hi Picard, nice to see you here. Thanks for rebloging my essay.
I don’t feel, or see, Germany and France being disunited. Quite the opposite: Merkel and Hollande looks like they are having an idyll. (They are even united, alas, on Greece. However, it is true one can only observe the absence of Cameron: London is vying for the title of capital of plutocracy.
However, whatever just happened in Minsk, it allows to gain more time. Putin hopes his armament program will allow him to be confident enough to risk a tank army attack across southern Ukraine, all the way to Moldavia. The Europeans hope somehow time will make him recover his senses.
I say: arm Ukraine… With defensive lethal weapons. And of course keep on squeezing Putin. Putin does not realize that public opinion in (representative) democracies is slow, but a force to reckon with.
Great Rafales were sold to Egypt. Maybe we could sell Rafales to… Ukraine? After all, it’s a democracy! Just the perspective of that would be hilarious.
I saw pictures of heavy guns lined up inside Ukraine behind the Russian flag. Nothing that Rafales cannot take out.
I also think that what stopped Putin at this point was that he did not feel confident enough to risk all-out war with Kiev, if Kiev got USA weapons. As you say. Also in the USA opinion, molded by Putin’s agents, is very anti-Ukraine. At least in the New York Times and the like (Wall Street Journal is the opposite, but it does not have the influence of the NYT). Obama prefers to go to war against the Islamic State (another cop-out).
PA
LikeLike
February 14, 2015 at 12:35 am |
“I don’t feel, or see, Germany and France being disunited. Quite the opposite: Merkel and Hollande looks like they are having an idyll.”
Germany and France maybe. But other countries… not so much. And EU cannot end up simply a French-German coop.
“Putin does not realize that public opinion in (representative) democracies is slow, but a force to reckon with.”
I’m not sure democracies actually exist in this world. Most “democratic” countries – Russia, US, EU itself if not most of its constituent members – are actually plutocracies. Still, yes, public opinion can influence the decision-making process – but never determine it.
LikeLike
February 14, 2015 at 4:22 am |
Frankly, France and Germany ought to become straight shooters.
1)On austerity, France should admit it’s in cahoots with Germany (instead of accusing Germany, sort of).
2) For Europe, France and Germany should ignore the rest of Europe. TOTALLY. They should unite and impose their own conditions on those who want to join. IMPOSE.
3) France and Germany united are one of the world’s superpower, with a GDP equivalent to China and, or Japan.
4) Whatever France and Germany decides, the Benelux, a sub-entity of the preceding two (the Franks who stayed in the Netherlands are called Dutch now; the Belgiae were perhaps the fiercest nation in Gaul) will follow. So will Italy, and Austria (and Catalonia, long part of France). At that point, only the USA is a bigger, more powerful nation. And barely more.
So the EU can be simply Franco-Germania with march states around, the old fashion way. In particular, the antics of Britain ought to be ignored, they mean nothing. Britain is an independent French COLONY. Independent, or rather semi-independent.
I agree that what I called representative democracies are not real democracies. I advocate going to DIRECT democracy, the only genuine kind.
However, in this crisis, Switzerland, a direct democracy, has sided with the Western “Democracies” against Pluto-Max, that is, Putin. That’s a nice change.
To go to determination, we have to request, require, enforce direct democracy. The way to do it, is to copy both the Constitution, and the practice of the Confederation Helveticae, Suisse.
LikeLike