History becomes fable.
We don't remember the past. We create it for ourselves to suit our needs.
Baby Boomers know what "Munich" means. It means Britain's Neville Chamberlain thinking we had "appeased" Hitler by letting him annex an area of Czechoslovakia. We learned a lesson, and have applied it for eight decades: "Appeasement" doesn't work to stop an aggressor. History is more complicated, but never mind. It is fable, heuristic.
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| Chamberlain |
Boomers barely remember "the Bay of Pigs." It is an uncomfortable memory because for a majority of Americans, JFK was a hero. People on the left remember the CIA planned an operation to overthrow the government of a neighboring country. We carried it out led by partisans in the U.S. The takeaway lesson for the left is CIA deceit and malevolence. The political right remembers it differently. We bailed out midway on the Cuban anti-communist crusaders. An indecisive Democrat let Cuba stay communist.
It serves no one to liken the Bay of Pigs operation to Russia in Ukraine. There is a lesson of big-power entitlement and the use of proxies to be acknowledged, but that is an uncomfortable fable because it positions us as the big-power aggressor. That idea conflicts with another American heuristic: Anyone we disagree with we call Hitler, especially if they exercise power in an unwelcome way.
We name-call Hitler. Obama is Hitler. Trump is Hitler. Putin is Hitler. By process of logic, since Putin is Hitler and since JFK (either a hero or weak) cannot be Hitler. Whatever happened in the Bay of Pigs might be wrong, but it is not what Putin has done in Ukraine using partisans to overthrow a nearby government.
"Afghanistan" ended so badly that it became instant fable. America was nation building. Afghans have their own politics, culture, and religion. We learned they liked being Afghans. We were fooled by a Potemkin Village of support for us. We got played. Potemkin Village is a fable so clear it needs no explanation.
Vietnam has not become a fable yet. Boomers and our elders remember Vietnam in too many different ways. Some remember it as patriotic service. Others remember it as a fruitless waste. The geopolitical lesson was "Vietnam syndrome." That means reluctance to use the American military lest we discover ourselves stuck in a costly, immoral quagmire. It also means its opposite. "Vietnam syndrome" was criticism, meaning the U.S. was too reluctant to face up to its duties as a peacekeeper. When Boomers die off, Vietnam may become like "Munich," an event with a single big clarifying meaning.
Yesterday in this blog I suggested Ukraine might be understood as a border skirmish between two countries, Ukraine and Russia. It is Ukraine now, but each have some claim to the affiliations of people of the Donbas. Neville Chamberlain justified Hitler's seizing the Sudetenland because of the principle of "self-determination." Chamberlain's decision did not age well. It was a ruse by Hitler. He didn't care about self-determination. His plan was European domination. That might be Putin's too.
Why would anyone, now Putin, invite the death of so many people, including his own soldiers? Why attempt to dominate Europe when one could sell it natural gas and enjoy neighbors in peace and prosperity?
There is another lesson of history: We honor conquerors. The man who greatly expanded the territory and prestige of Russia is remembered as Peter the Great. Napoleon communicated a vision of the greatness of France. His Grand Armée departed for Russia with 400,000 soldiers and returned with 35,000 survivors. He is remembered and celebrated in France.
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| Napoleon's tomb. |
16 comments:
"Why would anyone, now Putin, invite the death of so many people..."
Russia.
Of all the nations in the World, this is the one with the most imperial history. While the US was founded as a democracy, an utterly futuristic idea at the time, and has evolved into a progressive socialist republic, Russia has simply maintained its pseudo-monarchy and class structure, keeping its population subservient since they have no other cultural tradition to follow. In such a society citizens are expendable at the whim of their rulers and their enablers, who only seek to expand their personal power and wealth.
It's been suggested that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "simply a border dispute" and that part of Ukraine is a separate entity. If it was then it would be appropriate for the citizens of those regions to hold an election to decide the issue, moderated by the UN. This is nothing of the sort. Russia is attacking a neighbor because a democracy on its border is intolerable.
Russia and pre-WW2 Germany share the simple truth that they lost a protracted conflict. With Russia, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fracturing of the USSR, the loss of prestige as a world superpower, all factored into a drive to return to greatness of the past Soviet Union. Germany was defeated in WW One and force to pay. Both Hitler and Putin have used these events as pretext to regain "respect and relevance" on the world stage amongst the worlds nations. This time the world in not dealing with a populist and orator like Hitler but Putin, a seasoned apparatchik, who understands how to wield force and intimidate. If he is not stopped the tanks will roll across Europe backed by the treat of nuclear annihilation. At this moment, we can not fully grasp the extreme rick we face. To me, it is clear, Putin intends to take all of Ukraine... piece by piece. Putin is not a young man anymore and wishes to return Russia to greatness in territory and power. This may be the day, when tanks rolled into Eastern Ukraine, history looks back to as the start of WW3... if the world doesn't wake up to the threat soon.
Neville Chamberlain also wants to reclaim his former glory…
Beware the fascists attempting to drag the West into war against Russia. With the assistance of the CIA.
Ukraine is a fascist state with sham elections, run by the sons of the Wolf Brigade, the Ukraine Nazi fighters from WWII. They are the Ukrainian nationalists who were supported by Obama-Biden in the 2014 fascist putsch.
Ukraine is a state of 2 ethnic nations, of people who speak Russian and people who speak Ukrainian. Celebrating Diversity is not going so well for them. The current government is blatantly hostile to Russian speakers in Ukraine.
When George W Bush was first elected, he said he hoped to be a war president, so he could be a great president remembered in history. He got his wish, Americans fell in line to beat the war drums after 9/11. Those of us carrying 'Barbara Lee Speaks For Me' signs were not heard by the DC Establishment of both parties. The shrub got his wars on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Joe Biden appears eager to go down in history as the leader of America's WWIII against Russia.
I say Hell NO to warmonger Biden as I said Hell NO to warmonger Bush.
“[Hitler’s] plan was European domination. That might be Putin's too.”
I generally regard any comparison to Hitler absurd, but this one particularly. Apparently others of your regular commentariat disagree.
It is amazing how such deep and vast expertise sprung up virtually overnight.
Fortunately, sending U.S. troops into Ukraine isn’t on the table. Some say we should provide them weapons. That would ensure a lot more people are killed, mostly Ukrainians, but it wouldn’t change the outcome one iota.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Republican Party made its position on the invasion official: “This is genius.” Maybe Biden should try a more Republican approach – Putin probably just wants him to grovel.
Sally
"It is amazing how such deep and vast expertise sprung up virtually overnight"
Well-said. I think that whenever I read the majority of comments across most platforms.
We gave the Afghanis weapons and they defeated the Soviet Union. There’s no reason why the Ukrainian patriots can’t do the same to Russia.
They don’t want to live under the yoke of Russian domination. If they’re willing to fight for their freedom, we should help them.
The notion that the weapons we supplied to Afghan rebels drove out the Russians made a good movie (Charlie Wilson’s War), but the truth is they left for the same reason we did.
The Stingers didn’t help? What’s your evofir that?
Forty-three solid years of war, suffering, pain, and hardship for the people of Afghanistan. Foreign lands and the people that live there are not pawns to be kept in war and horror for reasons that seem so logical to emotionless callous heartless suited men 10,000 miles away.
American weapons and interference in the Soviet - Afghanistan War solved nothing, simply created more problems. One was named Osama Bin Laden.
One bomb on the Chernobyl like reactors in the rest of the country, or maybe a low grade atomic bomb set off by a third player who has other interests besides Russian or American domination , all done in the fog of war. Atomic annihilation just around the bend?
Naw, never happen…
Ayla Jean,
Our help to the Afghanis contributed significantly to the downfall of the Soviet Union. That was a huge benefit to everyone who was suffering under Soviet domination.
We screwed up by abandoning Afghanistan once the Soviets retreated in defeat. But it didn’t have to go that way.
We didn’t invade Afghanistan, the Soviets did. You can’t blame the aftermath of that totally on us.
Michael –
The Soviets left Afghanistan because staying there was costly and pointless – i.e. stupid (the same thing we later learned the hard way). American hawks like to tell themselves that it was all thanks to the weapons we supplied. As Peter said, “History becomes fable.”
In another fable, Rambo helped kick the soviets butt in Afghanistan. Maybe he’d consider helping out Ukraine.
Michael:
The CIA created and funded and armed a group of religious fanatics from the Gulf States to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan alongside the mujahideen, called the Arabs. One of the leaders armed and trained by the CIA was Osama Bin Laden.
When Poppa Bush rented out the US military as a mercenary army to restore the emir of Kuwait to his solid gold throne, Bin Laden got angry that US women soldiers were defiling the holy muslim soil of Saudi Arabia.
Bin Laden got his revenge on American blasphemy by using his Saudi connections and CIA training and skills to attack the US on 9/11/2001.
Baby Bush used the Bin Laden attack as pretext to launch long bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, still the cause of massive human suffering today.
The US intervention against the Soviets in Afghanistan led to endless bloody war which has not ended.
Sounds like a really cool idea to arm the Wolf Battalion nationalist fascists in Ukraine. What could go wrong?
Wars are fought over religion or the quest for natural resources that can be exploited.
Putin isn't doing this to rebuild the USSR. It's about getting richer.
Once Russia has taken over Ukraine, it's on to Poland and other Eastern European countries.
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