Forgotten History is Being Repeated

Putin should never have been invited to US soil and should be arrested the moment he sets foot on it.

Despite America helping to create the International Criminal Court, it never signed on to be a part of it, fearing that US soldiers and leaders would be held accountable for past atrocities. That is the American way: rules for thee but not for me.

There are 120 countries that are part of the ICC. Two other major nations that aren’t are Russia and Israel, countries actively committing war crimes, and leaders who have arrest warrants by the ICC. Instead of helping bring justice to the world, America is providing cover for men who think they can bomb and abduct children at will.

Allowing Putin on US soil legitimizes him at a time when he has become a global pariah. He will demand Ukrainian territory as a requirement for peace. A tribute for his invasion to begin a peace that would be temporary, lasting only long enough for Russia to regroup and rearm before invading again.

Ukraine will not, and should not, agree to such a terrible deal, and Trump, with his bruised ego, will turn his ire on Zelenskyy once again instead of standing up to Putin.

Appeasing dictators never works. History shows this time and again, with the most applicable lesson being the Munich Betrayal of 1938, when the United Kingdom, France, and Italy agreed to Hitler’s terms of keeping the parts of Czechoslovakia that Nazi Germany had invaded. Czechoslovakia was not part of the meeting and was not consulted.

Hungary and Poland assisted Germany in applying military pressure while England and France applied diplomatic pressure, forcing Czechoslovakia to submit to the terms of the Munich Betrayal. Europe rejoiced.

They believed that giving Hitler that land prevented a major war from breaking out. As history shows, it only served to embolden Hitler, gave him time to build up his military forces, and led to the most devastating war the world had ever seen and a horrendous genocide against Jewish people and other minority groups.

Over 400,000 Americans fought and died to end that cruelty and oppression. We formed a powerful alliance to prevent future major wars in Europe. It is an alliance that held the USSR at bay until it lost the Cold War and dissolved into Russia, Ukraine, and 13 other former Soviet republics. The United States became the leader of the free world and opposed fascism wherever it surfaced.

Ukraine wants to join the NATO alliance. Their reason was, and clearly still is, to protect itself from Russian aggression. The very aggression that has led to multiple invasions of their territory and war crimes against their people. Although Ukraine is not yet a NATO member, it is an American ally.

When Ukraine decided to relinquish its nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world, and join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States, Great Britain, and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum, providing Ukraine with security assurances to its sovereignty and independence. All the signatories agreed not to use or threaten military force against Ukraine. An agreement Russia has repeatedly broken.

The United States has never stood firmly enough with Ukraine in the face of these invasions, instead always pandering to Putin to try to get him to stop his attacks. But when Russia does stop, it is only temporarily before attacking again, pushing further, and killing more people. Authoritarians and bullies don’t respect agreements or words; they only respect force.

The solution is, and always has been, to give Ukraine everything it needs to repel all Russian forces from its borders, and remove restrictions from the weapons we give them so they can fight without one arm tied behind their backs. America has failed to do this. Europe has given more than we have and has stood steadfast in support of Ukraine. It has been enough to stop Russia from advancing further, but not enough to stop the bloodshed and the horrible bombings of hospitals, playgrounds, schools, and civilian buildings.

Now, the President has invited the tyrant committing war crimes to our country to discuss peace, without including the ally who has been the victim of these crimes. We continue to treat our enemy better than our friends, and we are sending the wrong message to the world.

Why would anyone be America’s ally if we won’t be there when you need us?

Why would any nation, such as Iran, give up on acquiring nuclear weapons when they see what happens to a country that got rid of theirs?

It has been so long since fascism tore the world apart, and children had to perform duck and cover drills in school to be prepared for nuclear strikes that America has forgotten how devastating global conflicts can become, and how quickly.

The heroes who stopped Hitler are mostly gone now, with fewer than 1% of US World War II veterans still alive, all of whom are in their 90s or older. We’ve lost touch with the harrowing past that led to America’s determination to spread democracy and freedom across the globe so that tyrants would no longer rise and try to destroy us. We’ve forgotten how to have compassion for others who are fighting for their country’s right to exist, for their freedom and independence. We’ve forgotten that there is no separating from the world and going it alone, one of the most critical lessons from World War II and the formation of NATO.

If America doesn’t wake up and see the threat Russia represents to the world, then we will find ourselves fighting a future war that will have significant casualties. There is no guarantee that the US and NATO allies will come out on top this time. All it takes to stop it is to stand in solidarity with our allies, the nations that are taking the initial blows from rising tyranny.

It is time for America to remember history, starting with the Munich Betrayal, and how severe the consequences of bowing to tyranny can be. This video shows Neville Chamberlain’s speech after signing the agreement with Hitler. Chamberlain believed he had achieved peace by ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Germany. Instead, Chamberlain had allowed Hitler time to create a powerful military that would decimate Europe one nation at a time.