Give Zelenskyy his ‘no-fly zone’; Putin has already started World War III
The West needs to stop sewing the fear of starting World War III. It is here. It is real. And Biden is playing Neville Chamberlain to Putin’s Adolf Hitler.
Ukrainian tank crews roll toward the southern war zone in Ukraine to halt Putin’s advances aimed at sealing off the Black Sea. (Photo: Luka Milosovic/Ukraine Independent) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Despite the risks involved, the U.S., NATO or some military force should immediately establish a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine. As Biden has no spine, it will be up to Poland, Bulgaria or Romania ― all former Soviet bloc nations, countries that learned first-hand the treachery of both Fascism and Communism in the last century.
No, the editorial board at America’s Conservative Voice have not suddenly become neocons over the weekend. Yes, this is a diametric change from the position we’ve held since before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nonetheless, the wholesale slaughter of Ukrainian civilians must be addressed. We have seen atrocities whereby the Ukrainian civilian population has been deliberately targeted by Putin’s artillery and air forces that demand a civilized world respond, and damn the consequences.
If the reason for not supporting Ukraine through military action is the fear of starting a larger European war through direct confrontation of Putin and Russia, it is too late for that consideration now.
A history lesson.
Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Great Britain in 1937. He was elected for his stance on Britain’s archaic labor laws which allowed women and children to work 12-hour shifts six days per week, or to be fired. Chamberlain changed those laws, and codified the idea of paid vacation in the British economy.
Those accomplishments were quickly overshadowed, however, by the deteriorating situation in Europe after Adolf Hitler came to power as Germany’s chancellor in 1933. Hitler quickly made it obvious he had set his sights on restoring all that Germany had lost following its bitter defeat in The Great War, World War I.
Hitler illegally remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936, a violation of the 1918 Treaty of Versailles that ended thr war. After effectively disarming Austria through a “peace treaty “ in 1938, Hitler’s army marched into the county and took it over without firing a shot. He then turned his attention to Czechoslovakia, threatening the Sudetenland region.
Rather than challenge these acts of aggression by Nazi Germany, Chamberlain sought ways to pacify Hitler. Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact in 1938, which gave Sudetenland and other parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany. He was supported in that move by French President Edouard Daladier.
Many historians believe the two elected heads of state desire to keep the peace was driven by their knowledge Hitler outmatched them in military might. Such being the case, they would be proven right over the next three years.
Chamberlain tragically underestimated Hitler's ambitions. In March 1939, Hitler violated the Munich Pact by invading the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France agreed to protect Poland later that month.
After Hitler's forces entered Poland that September, Chamberlain officially declared war on Germany; this declaration came shortly after the invasion, but his slight delay in making this announcement negatively impacted Chamberlain's popularity. Hitler immediately turned his military attention to overwhelming France and driving the British military into the sea. He achieved the former goal and nearly accomplished the latter.
Flashing his famous “V for Victory” sign, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspired his nation and the world to rally against the aggression of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. (Photo: British National Archives) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was the resolve of newly-elected British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that rallied the British to survive Hitler’s merciless nightly bombing campaign of London, saved the U.K. and badgered the U.S. to get involved in the war. Otherwise, Great Britain would be speaking German today, as would all of Europe.
All through Chamberlain’s massive blunders in misreading Hitler, the United States under Franklin Roosevelt remained strangely silent. Roosevelt refused to condemn Hitler. It is believed FDR secretly admired the ruthless dictator and may even have been a Fascist himself, like many of the early 20th-century Democrats.
FDR also remained silent with the annexation of Czechoslovakia and Poland. In fact, with Europe burning and on the verge of yet another war, Roosevelt went fishing in the Gulf Steam. That gave Hitler the impression Roosevelt was weak and unwilling to condemn his aggression in Europe or take action to stop him.
Hitler assumed ― rightly so, as it turned out ― that no one in the West would lift an effective military finger against him. It wasn’t until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor that Roosevelt asked for a declaration of war. It was one day after the devastating attack ― December 8, 1941 ― and Roosevelt asked for a declaration only against the Nippon Nation. Congress passed a war declaration against Germany three days later.
If we were able to overlay that entire pre-World War II scenario over today’s war in Ukraine, the cowardice of the West facing a madman in Hitler would superimpose perfectly over current Western cowardice and Putin’s arrogant insanity today. Ukraine is Austria, 87 years later.
As with Hitler’s blitzkrieg across Europe, Putin’s forces are tasked with reestablishing the old Soviet empire, just as Hitler wanted to restore the pre-World War I German empire. There is no alternative for Putin. He must achieve that goal or he will have failed, in his own eyes. And his own eyes are all that matter.
We can’t wait three years for it to play out in the same fashion it did then. Putin and Russia must be stopped now. It is time to realize Putin is not worried about starting World War III.
He has already started it.
Putin’s attack on Ukraine is an attack on the free world, and it is the world that must respond. He will no more stop with Ukraine than Hitler stopped with Austria. Or Czechoslovakia. Or Poland. Or France. He will not be appeased, negotiated with, nor diplomatically neutralized.
He must be stopped with overwhelming force. He must be stopped now.
The advantage of the world, the reason Ukraine is being so successful, is that the Russian military isn’t that of 1936 Nazi Germany. The Russian Fascist dictator’s poorly-maintained equipment and personnel are stymied in meeting these objectives ― the victim of Russian corruption. Kickbacks from contractors to military inspectors results in substandard parts being purchased for both original manufacture and for replacement parts. No doubt the Russian Mafia also takes its cut from manufacturers and labor unions alike to “assure delivery” of the inferior products.
Ukrainian soldiers search through the ruble of an apartment building parking lot Saturday. Ukraine presented evidence before the World Court in The Hague Netherlands Monday accusing Putin of war crimes for targeting civlians. (Photo: Yevgeny Spartz/Associated Press) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
That is why Putin’s forces are indiscriminately bombing, shelling and firing upon civilian and military targets alike in Ukraine. Not surprisingly, it is the civilians who are getting the worst measure of it.
In ordering his forces to target civilians, Putin is committing war crimes against Ukraine and the world. Ukraine went before the World Court at The Hague, Netherlands Monday to present a case for trying Putin before the International Criminal Court. The problem is, though the Court could issue an injunction against Putin’s forces to cease-and-desist in Ukraine, but it has no means of enforcement.
By targeting civilians, Putin hopes to completely demoralize the population so they will demand relief at any cost, up to and including surrender of their country, their freedoms and their identity as Ukrainian. In that respect, Putin has sorely underestimated the patriotism, the love of freedom and the will of the Ukrainian people.
That resolve, that bravery, is exemplified daily in their brave comedian-turned-international hero, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The president refuses to leave the capitol of Kyiv. He speaks constantly to his people and the international community via video while knowing full well such broadcasts could enable Putin to locate him and kill him.
His people, his country, are more important to him than his own life.
The rest of the world now needs to rise up to support militarily Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his 44 million countrymen. Make no mistake, with the exception of a few hundred thousand ethnic Russian sympathizers in the east of the country, each of rest of them is as committed to Ukraine’s freedom
Men who have spent days or over a week escorting their families to the Polish and Moldavian borders kiss their wives and their children good-bye and, knowing they are now safe, return to the battle to save their country.
Women, including Anastasiia Lenna, the former Miss Ukraine, who have no children to protect and save, are taking up arms to fight Putin’s army. Men and women from all over the world who are of Ukrainian heritage, whether recently immigrated or three generations removed from Ukraine, are going to the war-torn nation and into battle for their people.
Where then is the rest of the world?
Most heads of state are sitting on their hands while also wringing them ― a contortionist trick only an empty-headed politician can perform ― over worries that lifting a finger, a rifle, sending a plane or a tank will start World War III.
Again, Putin has already started it. He will declare weapons sent by the West, sanctions imposed by the West, are “acts of war” and lash out at NATO regardless of how tediously careful those nations are about ruffling Putin’s feahters.
Therefore, as World War III is already being waged, it is only a matter of how long the brave Ukrainian people can confine it within their borders.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is doing his best imitation of Neville Chamberlain. He pays lip service to “peace in Europe” and walking a tightrope to avoid the snarling, leaping alligators of war below him while, at the same time, financing Putin’s war against Ukraine by continuing to buy 670,000 barrels of Russian oil per day. That’s over two billion dollars a month from the U.S. alone.
The U.S. and Europe both continue to buy Russian oil and gas despite Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In continuing the purcases, the allies are pouring over a billion dollars a day into the Russian economy, thus financing Putin’s war. (photo: American Energy Institute) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The U.S. doesn’t need Russian oil. Energy experts from all political ideologies say that, by opening up the shut-down oil fields in Alaska, federal lands in the western U.S. and encouraging oil producers in Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota to increase drilling, we could again be self-sufficient in oil production as we were under President Donald Trump just over one year ago.
Biden is not just afraid of Putin, he’s afraid of the extreme Fascist Left wing of his party: The Squad, Eric Swalwell, the pencil-necked geek and liar Adam Schiff. Nancy Pelosi won’t silence them, she encourages them. Democrats don’t want the U.S. to drill more oil. They claim to want to “protect the environment” but their real reason is to weaken the U.S.
That is also why they want to stifle American small business. The Fascist Left in the Democrat Party is anti-oil and anti-business. It makes the people too free for their liking. Biden is letting them do it, not just by refusing to allow American oil to be pumped, but through other measures that border on treason.
In the heat and fog of war, Biden is committing treason by colluding with the enemy as Putin tries to broker negotiations to renew the Iran Nuclear Deal. That worthless agreement serves no purpose in limiting Iran’s nuclear capability. Instead, it will assure that Iran becomes a nuclear power and upsets the balance in the Mideast. That is what Putin wants, and Biden is endorsing the idea.
Biden is negotiating with Venezuela, a Fascist nation President Trump saw as an enemy. He immediately recognized democratically elected President Juan Guaidó, who still has not been able to take power. It is not him with whom Biden’s cabal of traitors is speaking, but illegally occupying president Nicholas Maduro.
Why? To convince Venezuela to provide oil to the U.S. so he can feel comfortable cutting off Russian oil.
Meanwhile, Putin is threatening a troop deployment to Venezuela and to Cuba. Those cloistered around Biden call it “bluster,” but it is an apparent attempt to up the ante with the U.S. and see if Biden will respond, betting that he won’t. Does anyone in Washington, D.C. remember the Cuban missile crisis? Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. It usually takes more than 60 years, however.
Finally, what of China?
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping is cozying up to Putin’s Russia. Since the Ukraine invasion, China has agreed to buy Russian oil and Monday, Xi called Russia China’s most important strategic partner. If the West becomes embroiled in a European war, another will break out in the Pacific as China will annex Taiwan and will undoubtedly be as unsatisfied with that acquisition as Putin will be with conquering only Ukraine.
It calls to mind yet another twist on the World War II plot we are watching play out before us: Japan and Germany had a similar relationship in which they agreed to split up the world between them once they conquered Asia and the West. Japan, India, The Philipines and Australia will be threatened after Xi’s success against Taiwan.
The West needs to stop embracing the fear of starting World War III. It is here. It is real. And Biden is playing Neville Chamberlain to Putin’s Adolf Hitler. Xi’s role as Hirohito awaits entry stage left.
Mike Nichols is an advocate of the counterrevolution with a four-step plan to defeat Leftist Fascism: We Organize. We Stand. We Resist. We Fight. He is a regular contributor to several conservative news websites and has a regular blog and Facebook presence at Americas Conservative Voice-Facebook.