“The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2005. “As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory.” Remedying that “catastrophe” is Putin’s driving force. Americans and our NATO allies must be prepared to match it.
When the west looks into Putin’s cold steely eyes, we see a brutal monster destroying Ukraine to lift the Soviet Union from the dustbin of history. The Russian autocrat will gladly concede his fervor for a national resurrection, but he doesn’t perceive the bloody countenance of a tyrant in the mirror. He sees a Soviet liberator protecting the Russian diaspora.
He will not blink in his nationalist ambitions until Ukraine is either a Russian puppet state once again, or democratic nations stop him. The United States and NATO allies are impressively united, but our longer-term endgame is much less clear than Putin’s.
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History shows who we must be
In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hoped to prevent a world war with Nazi Germany by meeting with Adolph Hitler and ultimately signing the Munich Pact which gave parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany. Putin’s “liberation” of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk echoes Hitler’s posture towards the Sudetenland and Danzig. We simply can’t ignore the clear historical analogues.
As Hitler prepared to invade Poland in 1939, he revealed how emboldened he was by Chamberlain’s appeasement. “Our enemies are men below average, not men of action, not masters,” he said. “They are little worms. I saw them at Munich.”
Chamberlain’s fatal conceit was believing that he could engage Hitler in a “practical and businesslike” manner. The Führer had little interest in economic placation or international assurances that peace was a better path. His singular focus was restoring Germany to its former glory from the humiliating provisions of the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. That rationale sounds chillingly familiar at our present moment.
We must not repeat Chamberlain’s mistake even as we sanction Russia and supply the Ukrainian military.
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The bigger picture
Putin has gambled that America and its democratic allies will prioritize our respective national interests over the recession of democracy around the world. If Russia takes Ukraine, what happens when it turns to Estonia or Latvia? Yes, they’re NATO members, but our obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 provide significant discretion as to what our response might be.
American non-interventionists will undoubtedly scream that we don’t have a national interest in going to war over two nations with a combined population that’s less than a tenth of Ukraine’s.
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Our politicians may argue that we’re not at war with Russia, but it’s hard to imagine that Putin agrees with that assessment. He’s simply not in a unilateral position to do much about it. Given time, resources, and allies he would absolutely repay us for the economic collapse we’ve initiated in Russia.
Imagine the United States invaded Mexico under the pretense of ending their drug cartels and government corruption. China responds by shutting down trade with America which sends our economy into a tailspin. Furthermore, the Chinese provide the Mexicans with advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft munitions and billions in aid. Would any American forget what China had done?
No, we should not rush headlong into direct combat with Russia. Neither can we ignore the peril of emboldening a barbaric authoritarian through perpetual concessions. Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini noted a similar moment not so long ago, “Chamberlain is not aware that to present himself to Hitler in the uniform of a bourgeois pacifist and British parliamentarian is the equivalent of giving a wild beast a taste of blood.”
Putin is one of this generation’s wild beasts. He tasted blood with his annexation of Crimea, and now he’s going for a large bite in Ukraine. He will not be satisfied until his beloved Soviet Union is whole again. Our resolve to remove his fangs and claws must be every bit as unshakable.
Columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney raising three boys in Nolensville, Tennessee, with his particularly patient wife, Justine. Direct outrage or agreement to smith.david.cameron@gmail.com or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: U.S. response to Russian invasion of Ukraine must be decisive and bold
