Multitudes of Americans have forgotten something that was once known by most all in our country, and certainly understood by presidents of both parties.
Take a look at this image:
This is the USS Maine. Her mission is deterrence. She is one of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs in the American nuclear triad. Each stands as a terrifying peer of the other as the most powerful and deadly weapons platforms that have ever existed in human history. Each ship carries enough nuclear weaponry to classify them as the Earth’s 6th ranking nuclear power.
After the global cataclysm of the Second World War it was broadly understood that humanity would not survive another world war, and that humanity now possessed the power of the gods. Humanity had breached a threshold where it was capable of summoning its extinction and evaporating any trace of civilization in an instant. This is why Douglas MacArthur talked about the necessity of a “spiritual recrudescence” among man as the gateway to lasting peace. While awaiting mankind’s evolution into peaceful beings the fall back option for preserving the peace was massive deterrence based on mutually assured destruction, anchored by the nuclear arsenals of the United States, United Kingdom and France. These were the victorious powers that shattered and pacified Nazi Germany after appeasing its rise and ignoring its danger. The horrors of fascism were thought to be indelibly carved into human memory under banners such as “Never Again” and “Never Forget,” but those turned out to be slogans that whisked away for millions like puffs of smoke.
A great collective security treaty was signed by most all of the world’s most important democracies and bulwarks of liberty after the horror of war that promised an attack on one was an attack on all. The purpose of this was not belligerence, but rather peace. Peace through overwhelming strength was the basis of NATO. It has kept the world from spiraling into the apocalypse for nearly 80 years. The only time its collective security obligations have ever been invoked was on the occasion of the 9/11 attacks against the United States. Many Americans and the whole of MAGA seem utterly ignorant of the scores of dead who died defending America, and were buried under foreign flags most of us couldn’t name. Their families remember their names though, and they understand the price of defending freedom.
The great threat that united the free countries of the world was a vast, powerful and dangerous nation, ruled over by a ruthless dictatorship and security apparatus that exported totalitarianism, terror and menace. That nation was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the dominant power within it was Russia. Today a revanchist Russia is led by a dictator who rationalizes his war of conquest, murder, rape, kidnapping and destruction with the same ideology, same logic, same dogmas that the 20th century’s deadliest fascist employed. The difference between Hitler and Putin exists in the space between the known and unknown. The thousand-year Reich died in a dank Berlin bunker when the shattered Führer poisoned his dog, next his wife, and then shot himself in the head. We know where Hitler ended, and precisely what he did. We know the full tale from 1923 all the way through the final moments.
The whole world understood for decades the incomparable evil of humanity’s greatest nemesis. Where Putin’s story will end is an open question. Perhaps it is the case that he will be little remembered for his first 20 years in power. Maybe Vladimir Putin remains a figure of our future still. Perhaps it is his destiny, like that of his predecessors, to shatter the world again and test humanity’s capacity and resolve to survive the new slavery — again.
The war he began in Ukraine is estimated to have killed almost 400,000 Russians. This is a staggering number, as is the 32,000 combat deaths sustained by Ukraine as the war enters its third year.
What is happening in Ukraine is much closer than most Americans grasp. Kyiv is just a plane flight away. It is the capital of a European country that is being attacked by a larger country under an old dogma of nationalism that declares that the smaller country and its language, history and customs don’t exist, and never have. The war at hand is one where subjugation and eradication are the goals. A single man has dreams of empire and restorations dancing in his head, and he has the power to do anything he wants. His name is Vladimir Putin and this simple fact of human history should be remembered when his name is discussed. Each century of humanity’s recorded story has been deadlier than the last, and 75 per cent of the 21st century lies ahead of us.
A great hour of moral reckoning has arrived in the United States. Are we prepared to surrender a burden that has saved us all? Are we prepared to welcome the darkness, and next, the abyss? Are we ready to abandon a brave people fighting for freedom and survival against a tyrant? Are we ready to appease the tyrant? Are we ready to lure him into the next country? How about the one after that?
By the way, have you thought about what the world looks like as America abandons her friends, alliances, and turns toward Russia in admiration, as opposed to revulsion?
It looks like this, as captured in a Reuters’ “In pictures: Two years of war in Ukraine.”
There should never be a world where there is a German, Japanese and South Korean nuclear weapon. Yet, as America abandons the realities of grave dangers facing us, and ignores the gathering threat, it is precisely what will happen.
The war drums are beating between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The situation in the Balkans is fragile. Conflict in the Middle East is escalating, and China is rapidly building the naval forces designed to take Taiwan by force.
Ukraine is the linchpin. Ukraine is Czechoslovakia in 1938, with Speaker Mike Johnson playing the latter day role of Neville Chamberlain.
A most dangerous hour has arrived at the doorstep of a fanatic who believes in fantasies, simplicity, power, dogmas and certitude. Speaker Mike Johnson is hostile towards democracy in America and around the world. Eighty-five years ago, America was blessed that such a man of meager abilities and extreme positions could never become the speaker of the US House of Representatives. This appalling hour is testimony to the irreducible truth that courage is the first virtue and its absence obliterates all others.
What is the right thing to do? What is the necessary thing to do? What is the American thing to do? What would our greatest leaders tell us to do?
Perhaps these words from John Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address on January 20, 1961, might help illuminate the question, and shine a light on the American path:
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
The abandonment of Ukraine will mark a moment of national shame and ignominy that will make our descendants shudder in anger and fear. The consequences will be catastrophic. The Ukraine War is the worst European war since World War II. Vladimir Putin has made clear wherever ethnic Russians may live, or where the Russian language may be spoken, is a border he refuses to abide. He has assessed American leadership, and found it wanting. He has gained the upper hand through a refusal to bend and blink. During the past 12 months he has faced down an armed rebellion and blew its plotter out of the sky before murdering his chief political opponent and most famous dissident. Now he sits enthralled to the slow motion strangulation of hope in Ukraine, as the world’s most powerful nation and force for freedom turns its back with indifference towards people who are making a stand for their existence. What has happened to the American spirit that would ever allow such indifference toward the fate of tens of thousands of kidnapped children?
The price of 21st century global war will be more than we can comprehend. When it comes, the violence will be shocking. When a small child looks up, and asks why things are the way they are, the answer will be simple.
Appeasement.
Reading this this morning I don't think I've ever felt so powerless or afraid in my life. Surrounded by Trump followers including my family I finally drew a line in the sand this week. I refuse to go to any place if they have Fox News on. Including my own Mother's house. It has caused a big uproar but I won't listen to that garbage anymore. My ptsd just can't take it. I need to focus all my energies on doing what I can to help save this country from itself. What my family will never understand is I'm doing it for them too. Fighting for Freedom just like all those people did in Europe and around the world. Keep getting out the word Steve. I thank God for you every day. ❤️🇺🇸💙
“The price of 21st century global war will be more than we can comprehend. When it comes, the violence will be shocking. When a small child looks up, and asks why things are the way they are, the answer will be simple….Appeasement.”
Although I agree with you Steve on most points, I’m not sure we can call the actions of the world as appeasement. The world understands the Putin threat, and our European partners have risen to the occasion.
Sweden and Finland, both of whom have never considered joining NATO during the height of the Soviet threat, now feel it necessary to be part of a European strategy to prevent Putin from achieving his demonic aims. These actions speak volumes as to the threat Putin poses to a democratic continent.
And as far as America is concerned, we aren’t appeasing Putin as much as the GQP is appeasing the Mango Moron, who is bought and paid for by Russian money, and possibly kompromat….:)