Airline Pilot Central Forums - View Single Post - Russia now rolling into Georgian city with ground forces.

08-12-2008, 08:53 AM

#10

⌐ AV8OR WANNABE

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Mar 2006

Posts: 3,333

I don’t think the Russians will attempt to take the whole Republic of Georgia – the international opinion would be too much to handle. Instead they'll take pieces of if (South Ossetia and Abhazia) in effect dividing Georgia into two parts.

…and the world will accept that ‘small loss for peace’ – does anyone remember Neville Chamberlain and Sudetenland?

For those who don’t, in September 1938 the UK, France, and Italy negotiated with the Nazi Germany on behalf of Czechoslovakia (without ever asking for the approval from the Czechoslovakian government) and they basically gave away the western parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany since there was a large German population there (see any parallels?).

When Chamberlain triumphantly returned to the UK he infamously proclaimed they created “peace in our time” thinking that Hitler would now be satisfied with the ‘lebensraum’ or living space for the Germans they’d created.

This appeasement policy backfired though as only 6 months later Germany occupied what was left of Czechoslovakia. Exactly one year after the ‘Appeasement Pact’ was signed - September 1, 1939 - Germany invaded Poland and WWII had begun (that’s the date most Europeans use as the start of the World War II)

I mention this because there are so many parallels here except now it’s the Russians who are craving more land to help their “poor citizens who are stranded in foreign lands”.

Look at this drawing made by a Russian cartoonist in the late 1930s. It shows the Western powers caving in to Hitler and giving away parts or all of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. The banner says “на восток” which means “to the East.”

How ironic, today we could change the drawing to show a Soviet star (or Russian star since Putin made the Soviet star official again) instead of a swastika and change the label to “на запад” or to the West.

What’s that saying? “Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it…”

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