In 1939, soon after having signed a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union attacked Finland as Germany invaded Poland. The Finns however were brutal fighters, with small squads of winter soldiers on skis swooping in and attacking larger Russian units. The Finns held out until the spring, begging for help from the West all the while. Once the winter snows melted, Stalin renewed his assault on the small country. The exhausted Finns were unable to hold out against the endless supply of Soviet troops. On March 12, 1940, Finland surrendered.
King George VI, he of the now "King's Speech" fame, and an underrated hero of the 20th century, wrote this in this diary the next day:
"The Finns surrender has come as a shock to us. And I am sure it will be said that democracies have failed again to protect a small nation against the power of aggression."
This week Russian invaded Ukraine. And besides some sanctions, which are like a used tissue as a roadblock against tanks, and the prior President calling the invasion "Brilllant", nothing has been done.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
4 comments:
Focus on trump! Makes it easy not to discuss our current leader. How's Biden doing on the issues? Forget Trump.
Think about what America would do if Mexico or Canada became a Russian puppet. Ukraine is not our business. We should not shed a drop of blood or spend a dollar there. That aside Biden looks dazed , weak and confused. PS don't llet Trump troll you, Rumpole!
You pose an interesting historical rear view mirror action. It is self-justifying to look at a piece of history, knowing how it ended and then postulating, in hindsight, what could or should have been done to avert a known travesty. Now do the reverse. Analyze situations where the US intervened and the results were worse than if we had done nothing. Or where we did not intervene and the world kept on spinning. For the former, think Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and for the latter, think NOT invading China in 1950, NOT taking out the Soviet missiles in 1962, NOT invading Hungary in 1956, and, most famously, NOT listening to Patton and putting the pedal to the metal in 1945 and starting another war with the Soviets. You are of course correct about Finland and Hitler but knowing how things would have turned out is simply not possible.
for those of you following Palin v NYT, rakoff continues his judicial malpractice....he is now speaking to reporters at Bloomberg news about the case! what a freaking clown he cant stop digging
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