Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Saturday, August 23, 2008 1:33:55 AM
From Ben Shapiro on August 18th, writing at Family Security Matters:
In 1939, Adolf Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia. He wanted it badly. There was only one problem: the Munich Agreements, signed by Hitler, Britain’s Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier of France, and Benito Mussolini of Italy, guaranteed the survival of Czechoslovakia.
But Hitler had a strategy. He proceeded to foment separatist insurrections by two of Czechoslovakia’s provinces: Slovakia and Ruthenia. This put the Czechoslovakian government in a no-win situation. If the government squelched the rebellions, Hitler could march in and declare that it was the German mission to free Slovakia and Ruthenia. If the government allowed Slovakia and Ruthenia to secede, Hitler could claim that the Czechoslovakia guaranteed by Britain and France no longer existed – the rump state was, in fact, a different state than the Czechoslovakia discussed under the Munich Agreements.
The plan worked to perfection. The Czechoslovakian government responded to the threat of secession by dumping the Ruthenian and Slovakian governments on March 9-10, 1939. On March 14, 1939, Slovakia, threatened with invasion by Hitler, declared its independence. So did Ruthenia. Hitler staged anti-German “atrocities” in Czechoslovakia, then invaded it. “Czechoslovakia showed its inherent inability to survive and has therefore now fallen a victim to actual dissolution,” Hitler stated. “The German Reich cannot tolerate continuous disturbances in these areas …. Therefore the German Reich, in keeping with the law of self-preservation, is now resolved to intervene decisively to rebuild the foundations of a reasonable order in Central Europe.”
The West, as Hitler had predicted, did nothing. Chamberlain cited Slovakia’s independence as a reason for reneging on the Munich Agreements. “The effect of this declaration,” said Chamberlain, “put an end by internal disruption to the State whose frontier we had proposed to guarantee. His Majesty’s Government cannot accordingly hold themselves any longer bound by this obligation.”
And so Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. And so Hitler was emboldened to invade Poland. And so began World War II.
Vladimir Putin of Russia is clearly a student of history. His Georgian gambit bears all the hallmarks of a Hitlerian coup. He fomented secessionist unrest in South Ossetia, a northern province of Georgia. When the Georgian government intervened to put down the unrest, Putin sent in Russian troops to “protect” the Ossetians. He then used the opportunity to invade all of Georgia, taking control of swaths of territory.
Excellent piece from Ben Shapiro. Continue reading at the link above. The parallels and stark similarities are undeniable. Vlad the Impaler Putin has engaged in every action described in Ben's article. Don't think for a second there are many of us watching this unfold who are not thinking the exact same thing, though Ben Shapiro definitely put it together in a well-written and coherent comparison from our not-too-distant history.
Of course for liberals, who in their own minds have erased all history before 1960, Russia is simply "keeping the peace" in an aggressive country full of George Bush-loving barbarians. The left's response to the Russian invasion of Georgia has been typically Communist. If they had behaved any different, I would have been required to pinch myself for fear of dreaming.