The failure of the West to prevent Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine recalls the timidity of the western powers facing Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s.
Back then, the Western democracies faced a dilemma: preserve the peace by letting Hitler take some territory or intervene militarily and risk war.
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Hitler claimed he wanted merely to extend Germany’s borders to include the areas of neighboring countries that had substantial German-speaking populations.
At the Munich Conference in September 1938, the Western powers gave Hitler permission to annex the western part of Czechoslovakia.
England’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned home from the conference promising “peace in our time.” Winston Churchill’s assessment: “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.”
Within months, Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland. By the next summer, the Germans were overrunning most of Europe.
It would take five more years and 80 million lives to defeat the Nazis.
Lesson No. 1 of WWII: appeasement does not work.
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Now Putin has invaded Ukraine, ostensibly to protect Russian populations there, even claiming that Ukraine is really part of Russia.
Western leaders thought they could deter him by threatening economic sanctions. They were wrong. Yet,President Joe Biden (with all the courage of Chamberlain) continued to proclaim that he would not go to war with Russia in Ukraine.
Biden’s feebleness may well stem from WWII’s Lesson No. 2: Atomic bombs are scary. A nuclear war must be avoided because it will destroy both sides.
So, as we watched another dictator moving to occupy a neighboring country, the West merely put up the scarecrow of economic sanctions.
That did not impress Putin. The dictator lives by Lesson No. 3 of WWII: if you want it, take it. This was the lesson taught by Hitler when he started the war and by Stalin when he ended it.
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Only a credible military threat and resolute leadership could have prevented the invasion. Only a military victory will drive the Russians back out of Ukraine. America must make sure that Ukraine wins. But what about the risk that Putin might use nuclear weapons? Lesson 2 tells us he will not.
Putin invaded Ukraine because he was convinced that he could take Ukraine with impunity. If the West had stood up to him, Putin would have backed down. The imposition of sanctions may eventually hurt Russia, but it is the Ukrainian military that will have to stop the Russian advance. To do so, they need our help.
As soon as Putin began his military buildup on Ukraine’s borders, the U.S. should have responded with its own “military exercises” with Ukraine and transferred substantial military assets to that country to support the Ukrainian Army. Instead, Biden stated repeatedly that the U.S. would not fight Russia. That only emboldened Putin to invade.
In the U.S., a self-centered politician recently proclaimed “…I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine,” thus admitting that he does not care what happens to freedom or democracy.
He and his fellow ostriches want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that Ukraine does not concern us. They are wrong. The Russian invasion of the Ukraine is as much a threat to America today as the German invasion of Czechoslovakia was eight decades ago.
More: Zelenskyy is a courageous leader. He deserves both America’s admiration and support.
The Ukrainians are fortunate to have in Volodymyr Zelensky an inspiring leader. He has earned the world’s respect as the true heir to Winston Churchill, a strong leader courageously holding the line against the dictator while pleading for the world’s help.
The West is finally sending some weapons to help Ukraine, but it may be too little too late. The U.S. should use its air power to support the Ukrainian forces fighting the Russians inside Ukraine.
The Russian invaders must be defeated militarily.
Randall Condra has a B.A. from Ball State University and an M.A. from Ohio State. He served as a German translator in the U.S. Army in West Berlin during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What should the US do to help Ukraine defeat Russia?
