SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM NUCLEI
Any concession to tyrant Putin will make his bellicose drive worse. Appeasement will only tell him that he has got to be right, he is winning, and he is on the right path. We have seen that movie with Hitler. The drama with the Sudetenland in 1938 has much in common with the drama in the Donbas, including a dictator screaming that minorities were in mortal danger, and sham referenda: Hitler had been elected in part on the promise of protecting what he claimed were abused German minorities.
Thus Pangermanism wanted to annex the Sudeten to Germany. However, Hitler was not so ridiculous as to pretend that the Sudeten inhabitants were victims of a genocide at the hands of the Czechs. He proposed an annexation referendum, overseen by the German army, though. The Czeks refused, France mobilized, so Hitler proposed a peace conference, at Munich, during which a piece of Czechoslovakia was given to Germany.
Putin’s discourse about a (completely imaginary) “genocide”in the Donbas is worse than Hitler’s raging statements about the Sudeten. A first attempt to propose a referendum of the Sudeten about annexation overseen by the German army was blocked by a war threat from France [1]. Hitler was given land at Munich in 1938… To appease him.
That appeasement was not just a weakness, it gained time, the way France and the UK looked at it at the time (they were wrong). France and the UK did not have the USA with them, and Britain had basically no army (same as in 1914). The US was neither diplomatically, nor economically, nor politically or militarily with its parents, France and Britain. Roosevelt had named pro-fascist ambassadors to the UK and Germany, and hordes of US plutocrats were making the fascists regimes prosperous, well invested and fueled [2].
For many years, the New York Times, and other US media, did their best to ignore Hitler’s exactions, even while the German dictator was notoriously killing millions of minorities, and occupied democracies.
While Hitler was momentarily appeased, Britain was frantically equipping itself with a huge state of the art air force. France and the UK felt that time worked in their favor, militarily, because of their great empires.
Hitler invaded Austria in March, a day before a planned referendum on annexation by Germany (similar to Putin and his sham referenda). After weakening Czechoslovakia militarily, grabbing its defense lines, Hitler invaded the rest. When getting ready to invade Poland, Hitler allied himself with the Kremlin (to add to his alliances with Italy, Japan and Spain). This time, France and the UK declared war.
The NYT, and pseudo-progressives paid by Putin, are at it again with the Kremlin nuclear tyrant: “If [giving part of Ukraine to Putin] happens, a territorial settlement will be reached and the global rules-based international order will be re-established”… bleats hopefully Mr. Brooks (who censored my comment contradicting his wish to give much of Ukraine to Putin)
Appeasing a dictator who, because of his dreams of glory, threatened to extinguish humanity, is criminal nonsense. Putin is obsessed with taking Ukraine. Any negotiated settlement will just give him time to re-arm and return with greater force and greater threats. Feed Putin, like a bear, or a tiger, he will come back. The only way to end the threat is to eliminate Putin. If not eliminated, he will come back.
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Hitler had to keep on attacking, lest the German army and Volk turned against him: too many things, including democracy and the economy, had turned sour in Germany (same with Russia today). The exact parallel is true in Russia today: war powers protect a dictator. Given any piece of Ukraine, Putin will come for more, including the Baltic and Poland
The New York Times did its best to ignore Hitler’s exactions, even while the German dictator was notoriously killing millions of minorities, and occupied democracies.
The NYT is at it again with the nuclear tyrant; the NYT, and many other media, propose appeasement with Putin: “If [giving part of Ukraine to Putin] happens, a territorial settlement will be reached and the global rules-based international order will be re-established.” This is criminal nonsense. It’s akin to appeasing a rapist who threatened to kill the victim and onlookers, by proposing to him to rape the victim just a bit, to reestablish order. Putin is obsessed with taking Ukraine. Any negotiated settlement will just give him time to re-arm and return with greater force and greater threats. He will come back. The only way to end the threat is to eliminate Putin. If not eliminated, he will come back.
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We have an extremely similar situation now with what happened with Hilter and his fascist allies in 1937-1940. However, many have learned this history, and thus opted to act differently. This is why 27 European countries, including traditional neutrals such as Sweden and Switzerland are sending weapons to Ukraine. (Sweden and Switzerland helped Nazism for many years, often crucially), France is not taking orders from Biden, and yet, has switched to war production of many of its most sophisticated weapons, after sending 25% of its mobile high precision CAESAR guns to Ukraine.
The easiest way out of Nazism occurred in 1937 when the German High Command, led by General Beck, prepared a coup against Hitler. Stupidly, they searched for help in the Uk and US. The German army asked the US and UK to stand officially against Hitler (thus supporting France, Hitler’s dedicated enemy). The German army leaders would then make a coup, arguing to the German Volk that Hitler was an existential threat to Germany.
The best course for peace is then, as horrible as it may sound, to prepare for nuclear war. There is simply no alternative. Any concession to Putin is a concession to a group of criminals who threatened this week to “use strategic nuclear weapons against the West for their occupation of Ukraine“.
If the Russian army realizes Russia faces annihilation, it will make a coup.
If the West is ready to fight a nuclear exchange, the Russian army will find itself in the situation that German generals naively looked for in 1937: having a good excuse for a coup. So the West has to get ready, and has to scramble into world war mass production, especially of anti-missile systems [3] (which do exist; but recently the US had just one, around Washington, while France had eleven, and sent one to Romania to protect a major Franco-American base there…)
Some will object that nuclear war is unthinkable, that I am thinking the unthinkable. But so did Putin, and for more than a decade. The strategy of going nuclear in a conventional conflict is called by Putin’s valets: “escalate to de-escalate“. There is little doubt that nuclear weapons should be unlawful. Only a few should be left, under UN supervision, in case a comet comes our way, or some rogue criminal organization develops weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, etc.), and needs to be taken out. An example of such a gang of criminals is the Putin gang. The UN has established that war crimes were committed, including rape, torture and execution of children as young as 4. Putin’s lovers, of which there are many throughout the West, have also to answer these crimes, which they approve of, by denying they happened, similarly to the most fanatical Nazis in 1945.
Their reasons are vile: we know Putin spent at least half a billion on infliuencers, worldwide. Those influencers using Kremlin propaganda should be jailed and prosecuted (in this order: this is the greatest war, we have to switch to military law and traitors to civilizations should be soped, that is, arrested.)
So we have a criminal gang, armed to the teeth with the world’s biggest arsenal of nukes. But nukes cost a lot of money to keep functioning as anticipated, and we have to rely upon the hope that there a re semi-decent individuals in the Russian military whose sadomasochism is not so high that they will try to destroy civilization. Meanwhile, scrambling for anti-missile systems, potential evacuation of cities, and reactivation of old Western nukes should be the order of the day.
As the old French saying has it:
“A la guerre, comme à la guerre”…
In war, as in war.
Patrice Ayme
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[1] The Czechs announced on 28 September 1938 that they rejected Hitler’s proposal of an annexation referendum (the Godesberg Memorandum). France ordered the mobilization of 600,000 men. The Royal Navy was also mobilized the same day.
Hitler feared a war against Czechoslovakia, Britain and France. He agreed to Chamberlain’s proposal for a further meeting the next day, now at Munich, between four heads of government, Chamberlain for Britain, Hitler for Germany, Prime Minister Daladier for France and Mussolini for Italy, with no Czech (!!!) or Soviet participation. On 1 October, a pact was signed which provided for possession of the Sudeten Province to be transferred to Germany, with Britain and France guaranteeing the new borders of Czechoslovakia. On 1 October, German troops marched into the Sudetenland, which was immediately incorporated into Germany. Some 115,000 Sudeten Czechs and 30,000 Sudeten Germans, fled to what was left of Czechoslovakia. By 1 March 1939, the number of refugees, including Social Democrats, Communists and Jews, was reported by the Institute for Refugee Assistance to stand at 150,000
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[2]… to replace his friend the historian Dodd who thought war against Hitler was necessary. Throughout the war, US president FDR looked more interested in weakening France and Britain, and instrumentalized various fascists, Hirohito, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and Stalin to do so. Warning: this is nearly 100% in contradiction with the official version of history… But that version is wrong, and that’s demonstrated in many of my essays, detail after detail…
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[3] Western anti-missile systems do exist; but recently the US had just one (built in cooperation with Norway), around Washington DC, while France had eleven, and sent one to Romania to protect a major Franco-American base there…
