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“Let Russia Do Whatever The Hell They Want [With Ukraine],” “…Pull out of NATO…,” And Other Trump Absurdities
A quick lesson in History is needed to fully understand just how inane rhetoric like the Trump quotes captioned above are.
In the midst of World War I, then President Woodrow Wilson pondered what a post war world might look like. He had an idea for a League of Nations, comprised of democratic countries dedicated to peace keeping and defense of each other. That idea formed the basis of the post World War 2 NATO alliance.
After WW1, the Treaty of Versailles placed numerous restrictions on Germany regarding military size and military equipment stockpiles. It also placed enormous financial strains on the country for war reparations while limiting or banning exports to help pay those bills. That resulted in an rampant inflation that devalued the German currency so much that it literally took a wheel barrel of cash to buy a loaf of bread. The German people were so humiliated and suffering financial insecurity that Hitler rose to power even after being convicted of treason for a failed coup and serving prison time. He blamed the woes on Jews, Slavs, and Jehovah Witnesses. The German people believed him and propelled him into the dictatorship, and the 2nd World War.
Meanwhile, Benito Mussolini had already blazed that trail. Seizing power in the democratic country of Italy and turning it into an autocracy, blaming the Italian’s financial insecurities on the government and the people ate it up, believing every word.
After WW2, Germany and Italy had to give up several territories as part of the Treaty to end the war. Especially noteworthy is the Pottsdam Treaty where Germany is forbidden to have any offensive missiles or unconventional ordinance. It also reaffirmed the WW1 Treaty provisions limiting the size of its military and amount of military vehicles and ordinance permitted. Instead, the US would provide any additional defense required of those countries if needed under the guidance and auspices of NATO.
Fast forward to present day America and the political rhetoric being spewed.
For decades, America wanted the Berlin wall taken down. A symbol of the cold war and the separation of a nation between democracy and communism, John F. Kennedy famously stood at the foot of the wall and exclaimed to an enthusiastic crowd, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” (I am a Berliner!). A few decades later, Ronald Reagan stood at the base of that same Berlin wall and called on Russia’s President, Mikhail Gorbachev, to, ”…tear down this wall!” The wall was torn down, reuniting families that had spent decades separated and restoring Germany as a unified nation once more.
The threat of Russia annexing territories closer to democratic strongholds in Europe…strongholds that are our allies and provide a buffer between communist Russia and the U.S., is happening now. Putin has forcibly annexed Crimea. He has already been found guilty of War Crimes and he continues his onslaught of Ukraine. The only thing standing between Russia annexing Ukraine against the will of its people is the U.S. and its European allies and weapons support. What price is freedom worth? And let’s not forget that if we allow Putin to have Ukraine, he has already stated publicly that Poland is next. In case you are geographically challenged, that puts him even closer to the U.S. with his newly developed supersonic ballistic missiles that could reach our East Coast in 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes making interception even more difficult and improbable.
Add to this danger the notion of backing out of NATO. Without America providing NATO guided support, Germany and Italy and other countries would have to develop their own nuclear deterrence. More nuclear waste products all over the globe providing a buffet of plutonium for bad actors to steal all over the world instead of just a few hot spots to monitor.
The idea would be laughable, were it not so dangerous for American interests both at home and abroad. The U.S. was once the beacon of democracy all over the world. We are tarnishing our own legacy by simply entertaining another Trump presidency.
A 1954 poem by Maurice Ogdon illustrates the reason why we should never be silent to the cries of help from others. While it is admittedly lengthy, it is far too relevant to abbreviate or skip, so I present it here:
The Hangman
By Maurice Ogden
1.
Into our town the Hangman came
Smelling of gold and blood and flame—
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air
And built his frame on the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime,
The Hangman judged with the yellow twist
Of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead;
Till one cried: “Hangman, who is he
For whom you raise the gallows-tree?”
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
“He who serves me best,” said he,
“Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree.”
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another’s grief
At the Hangman’s hand was our relief.
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow’s sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his hangman’s cloak.
2.
The next day’s sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town
And, stark and black in the morning air,
The gallows-tree on the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and businesslike
And we cried: “Hangman, have you not done,
Yesterday, with the alien one?”
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed:
“Oh, not for him was the gallows raised . . .”
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
“ . . . Did you think I’d gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That’s a thing I do
To stretch the rope when the rope is new.”
Then one cried “Murderer!” One cried “Shame!”
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man’s place. “Do you hold,” said he,
With him that’s meant for the gallows-tree?”
And he laid his hand on that one’s arm,
And we shrank back in quick alarm,
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his hangman’s cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman’s scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute
The gallows-tree had taken root.
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
3.
The third he took—and we had all heard tell—
Was a usurer and infidel.
And :“What,” said the Hangman, “have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?”
And we cried out: “Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?”
The Hangman smiled: “It’s a clever scheme
To try the strength of the gallows-beam.”
The fourth man’s dark, accusing song
Had scratched out comfort hard and long;
And “What concern,” he gave us back,
“Have you for the doomed—the doomed and black?”
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again:
“Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?”
“It’s a trick,” he said, “that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow.”
And so we ceased and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score;
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
4.
Then through the town the Hangman came
And called in the empty streets my name,
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall
And thought: “There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help him pull down the gallows-tree.”
And I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman’s tree and the Hangman’s rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town,
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap
And it sprang down with a ready snap—
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
You tricked me, Hangman!” I shouted then,
“That your scaffold was built for other men.
And I no henchman of yours,” I cried.
“You lied to me, Hangman, foully lied!”
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye:
“Lied to you? Tricked you?” he said, “Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true:
The scaffold was raised for none but you.”
“For who has served me more faithfully
Than you with your coward’s hope?” said he,
“And where are the others that might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?”
“Dead,” I whispered: and amiably,
“Murdered,” the Hangman corrected me;
“First the alien, then the Jew . . .
I did no more than you let me do.”
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky,
None had stood so alone as I—
And the Hangman strapped me, and no voice there
Cried “Stay!” for me in the empty square.