(C) Tennessee Lookout
This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Lest we forget – Tennessee Lookout [1]
['More From Author', 'October', 'Loy Waldrop']
Date: 2023-10-17
The Spanish American philosopher George Santayana famously wrote that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
A group called “Republicans for Ukraine, a project of Defending Democracy Together — led by conservative writer Bill Kristol — has graded Republican members of Congress on their support for Ukraine. Tennessee U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett, Congressional District 2, Diana Harshbarger, District 1, and Andy Ogles, District 5, all received grades of ‘F.’ These Tennessee congressional representatives forgot pertinent world history.
Conversely, Tennessee Republicans Chuck Fleischmann, District 3, and Mark Green, District 7, received “A” grades.
Burchett and his fellow low grade congressional comrades could help their country by contemplating relevant history. World War II did not begin in 1939 with the German attack on Poland or in 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The seeds for the war that killed millions and ruined entire countries were sown much earlier.
Initial seeding for a wider war occurred when Japan invaded China in 1937. The US took no meaningful action until 1940 when aid to China was increased and sanctions against Japan tightened after Japan repudiated an existing treaty with the US.
Also in 1940, Japan joined an alliance with Germany and Italy pledging mutual aid if an alliance member was attacked. Japan additionally began promoting its “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” as a propaganda tool to mask Japan’s drive for regional supremacy.
A similar event cascade occurred in Europe. About three million Germans lived in western Czechoslovakia after WW1. Following Hitler’s elevation to chancellor in 1933, he campaigned for unification with Austria and the German area of Czechoslovakia called the “Sudetenland”.
Following Germany’s threat to invade Czechoslovakia, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier met with Hitler in Munich in 1938, appeasing him by conceding that Britain and France would not defend Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain proclaimed: “Peace in our time.”
Germany quickly occupied the Sudetenland and Austria. After further dismembering Czechoslovakia, Germany turned to Poland with agitation to recover the “Free City of Danzig,” an autonomous formerly German seaport city that Poland was granted access to and entrusted with the city’s defense by the WW1 peace treaty. When Poland refused German demands, Germany attacked Poland in 1939. Poland was allied by treaty to Britain and France who then declared war on Germany.
Lessons from World War II: Three Tennessee congressmen — Republican U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett, Diana Harshbarger and Andy Ogles — and their lack of support for Ukraine fall in the tradition of the pre-war “America First” isolationist movement.
Americans were divided about the extent the US should aid Britain. Roosevelt’s administration proposed the Lend-Lease Act in 1940 that allowed the President to transfer to other countries such military material “as the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.” This act became law in early 1941. The act was opposed by the “America First Committee,” a significant popular isolationist effort formed in 1940 and led by prominent Americans of that era including U.S. senators, the chair of Sears-Roebuck, and aviator Charles Lindbergh.
Subsequently, Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941 and Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Australia, Malaya, Burma, India, and Southeast Asia beginning in Dec. 1941. Germany, at war with Britain and having defeated France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway in 1940, honored Germany’s treaty with Japan and declared war on the US. The America First Committee was dissolved four days after the Pearl Harbor attack.
There are no exact parallels in history but there are striking similarities. After the USSR fragmented in 1991, minority Russian speaking populations were left in newly independent Ukraine and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Former Russian controlled East European countries on Russia’s western borders escaped from Russian domination and became NATO and European Union members with West and East Germany reunited.
When Vladimir Putin assumed power, he, like Hitler before him, began campaigning to “protect” Russian speakers in former USSR regions and reverse the USSR’s disintegration.
Also like Hitler, Putin began a campaign to create a “greater Russia” by nibbling around Russia’s borders and issuing anti-Ukrainian propaganda. The seizure of Crimea and the instigation of a proxy war in eastern Ukraine in 2014 were among Putin’s first bites at reversing the USSR’s collapse. When Western reaction appeared weak, Putin gambled heavily in 2022 and launched his current invasion of Ukraine.
Tennessee politicians who have opposed aid to Ukraine, like their America First Committee predecessors, excused their actions. Burchett expressed concern about waste and fraud in defense spending. Harshbarger stated that she “would not support sending billions overseas when mothers in America can’t feed their children.” Ogles introduced a failed effort to stop lend-lease aid to Ukraine. While these Tennessee politicians continue to pontificate and evade accountability, thousands of Ukrainians bleed and die.
Total US aid to Ukraine is currently about $80B according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The Congressional Research Service reports that about $47B of this amount is military/security aid from 2014 through Oct. 5. The EU and its constituent countries have contributed the most total aid to Ukraine with the US supplying the most military aid.
In Gross Domestic Product (GDP) terms, Norway has contributed most at 1.6% GDP. US aid to Ukraine is about 0.33% of US GDP. The Baltic EU countries have each contributed more than 1% of their GDP to Ukraine. As context, the US military budget for 2023 is about $817B, approximately 12% of the total US budget, and about 3% of US GDP.
Sustaining Ukraine’s independence, however, is not just about dollars and euros. Lessons from history and middle school playgrounds are clear; appeasing aggressors invites more aggression. A Chinese wolf, drooling over Taiwan and its chip industry, is watching Ukraine. In Moscow, the dictatorial government of a “wannabe” empire appears populated at prominent levels with liars, thieves, thugs, and murderers.
When the US Congress votes on aid to Ukraine, the question likely is asked in the Kremlin: “How many votes did we get?” Tennessee representatives who vote “No” on aid to Ukraine should explain clearly why they comfort Putin and encourage Chinese aggression.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/10/17/lest-we-forget/
Published and (C) by Tennessee Lookout
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/tennesseelookout/
