Peace in Whose Time?

They say negotiations are going on between representatives of Russia and the Ukraine and Russia is demanding that the Ukraine disarm, agree to never join NATO or the European Union and become a vassal State of Russia if not actually an integral part of Russia. Ukraine wants a cease fire, withdrawal of Russian forces, and further negotiations of its status with the West.

In 1938, under a similar threat of military action, the West ignored its treaty obligations to Czechoslovakia and gave in to Adolph Hitler’s demands that much of Czechoslovakia be ceded to Germany.

Hitler assured the West that he had no further territorial claims, and the West, through British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, assured the world that the Munich Agreement would result in “Peace in Our Time.”

A year later Germany attacked Poland and took control of all of Western Europe and held on to it until the West, including now the United States, took it back in the catastrophic drama called World War II.

For me, the only acceptable conclusion of the current Ukraine negotiations is:

1. the complete withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine

2. return of the Eastern breakaway republics, currently supported by Russia, to Ukraine

3. return of Crimea to Ukraine

4. Reparations to be paid by Russia to Ukraine for destruction of property and the loss of life caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine

5. Indictment of President Putin and all military field officers involved for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity

It’s clear that Russia’s argument that a West-leaning Ukraine is an existential threat to Russia and the Ukrainians, in their hearts and minds, are friends of Russia, is false. The fierce Ukrainian resistance clearly gives the lie to Putin’s claims about Ukrainian hearts and minds, and the existential threat of Ukraine is not against Russia but, rather, against the West. A Russian takeover of Ukraine puts Russian missiles 800 miles closer to London and every other Western capitol.

These factors make it important that Russia’s madman attack on Ukraine be not only stopped but severely punished economically and, if necessary, militarily including planes in the air, ships on the sea and boots--European and, yes, even American—on the ground. Anything less merely kicks confronting this kind of evil down the road. As that noted foreign policy expert and consiglieri of Godfather fame, Peter Clemenza, said to Michael Corleone “We were just asking for it. We should have stopped him (Hitler) at Munich.”

Right now, “him” is Putin and “Munich” is Kyiv.