Published on FOXNews.com on August 11, 2008
On October 3, 1938, Adolf Hitler’s armies marched into Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. Germany said it was responding to separatist demands from the large German population that lived there and that she was merely honoring their desire for reunion with Germany. Hitler’s tanks took over a vital part of an independent country that had largely rejected his overtures and allied itself with the West. Neither Britain nor France nor the United States did a thing to stop him.
On August 7, 2008, Vladimir Putin’s armies marched into South Ossetia, a part of Georgia. Russia said it was responding to separatist demands from the large Russian population that lived there and that she was merely honoring their desire for reunion with Russia. Putin’s tanks took over a vital part of an independent country that had largely rejected his overtures and allied itself with the West. Neither Britain nor France nor the United States did a thing to stop him.
Encouraged by his occupation of Sudetenland, Hitler continued his designs on Czechoslovakia itself and invaded the rest of the nation a few months later.
Will history continue to repeat itself?
Georgia is one of the two countries that have split off from the old Soviet Union and most firmly reached out to the West. Now Putin is testing whether the west will respond to an overt Russian military attack on a part of Georgia, doubtless paving the way for a full scale invasion, perhaps in the coming days. One immediate Russian move would be to use its new found military leverage to force Georgia to give up Abkhazia, another province with a large Russian population.
Russia has encouraged migration by ethnic Russians into its satellite empire ever since Stalin’s days and now is using the provinces with large Russian populations to foment discord in nations that lean to the West.
The United States and the European Union must not turn away at this crucial moment in history. The U.S. should take visible steps to bolster Georgia, including the dispatch of supplies, materials, and other manifestations of our determination not to let this nation be invaded.
Russia’s goal in this imperialism is to intimidate any nation on its borders into rejecting overtures from the west and to try to prove that the west will offer no real protection against Russian military designs.
NATO should speed consideration of Georgia’s application for admission and should extend its security umbrella to include the struggling democracy.
If the United States appeases Russia now, it will pay the same price British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain paid in the 1930s. This invasion must not be allowed to stand or, at the very least, it must be contained to South Ossetia and not allowed to lap over into the rest of Georgia.
 |
Comments
Only subscribers to Dick Morris' '08 Play-By-Play may post comments. You must be logged in to post a comment.
America can no longer think of themselves collectively as a huge rescue squad on twenty-four-hour call to any spot on the globe where dispute and conflict may erupt. Why should America risk the lives of our soldiers for countries whose names we cannot spell properly. It is time for someone else to belly-up to the bar of saving countries.
Russia with its significant oil INCOME can afford a prolonged battle over Georgia. The US with its unprecedented debt and over $700b annual OUTFLOW for oil cannot.
With our military tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan we can offer meagre military assistance.
Europe with its generally pacifist nature and dependence on Russian oil is unlikely to act.
A full NATO military response would risk turning all of Georgia into an East vs West battleground. One where Russia has the overwhelming military advantage of proximity to the battlefield.
Perhaps we can learn from our current situation and ensure, however, that a robust Georgian insurgency greets the Russian invaders.
In addition this situation brings even more to the forefront the issue of American independence from unsavory foreign oil supplies. Independence will decimate the cost of a barrel of oil and deprive Russia of the income it needs to rebuild and to again become an international bully. On this issue McCain has the upper hand. Ignoring ANY domestic energy source is foolhardy. We need to go after every energy source and go after it now. We can phase out the non-renewable sources as we go but for now our place in the world depends on getting the hooks of foreign energy supplies out of our butts. Just making a real commitment to get this done will cause oil prices to begin a downward slide and limit Russia and others. Where the hell is congress when they are needed. They seem to be emulating Nero as Rome burned. Wake up America … Russia was, is and remains our biggest threat not the so called Islamic radicals. Putin has solidified his power and they have unprecedented mounds of cash.
I love Dick Morris and usually think he is right on point, but he is wrong here. Hitler is the wrong comparison.
The Cold War may be over, but that doesn’t mean Russia is going to allow NATO into the Caucuses, that would be a serious encroachment and the United States was foolish to consider it. Russia has dominated this region for 200 years and its strategic importance cannot be overstated. If Georgia became part of NATO, with attendant rights for bases, missle deployments, etc. that would be similar to the USSR putting nukes on Cuba.
No one was calling the U.S. Hitler when we invaded Cuba or Iraq for that matter. Both were military actions that were strategic rather than ideological, even if the rationale was framed in ideological terms (American Presidents always have to sell strategic moves in moral terms).
Georgia got too much gumption and misunderstood the power dynamics. Shaakasvili was wrong to think that the U.S. would go to war with Russia to protect a prospective NATO member. To do so would be insane.
Russia is not about to take over the world, but they will fight to preserve their territorial advantages. The U.S. and China would do - and have done - exactly the same.
Further, being the lone superpower in the world has not been the best position for the United States, or for any prior hegemon for that matter. The rise of China and Russia should be viewed in a broader strategic context: a return to a mutli-polar balance of power is actually a much more stable and tenable position for the United States than the post-cold-war unipolar system.
Solo empires don’t last.
[…] DickMorris.com Share […]
[…] One side is complaining about Mark Belling’s “we’re going to have to send in troops” idea, and the other is comparing Russia to Nazi Germany. […]
The Expediency of War Hysteria
With the messy, unfortunate, and tragic war between Russia and Georgia now wrapping up under the hazy fog of ceasefire agreements (minus of course the ongoing pillaging and humiliation of the defeated and the exceptionally slow removal of Russian tanks…
[…] aggression Here’s a little different take on this subject in an article by Dick Morris: HITLER INVADED SUDETENLAND; NOW PUTIN INVADES SOUTH OSSETIA at DickMorris.com I’m not sure we should be getting too involved with these types of squabbles over there, but in […]