WW II began with a German invasion of the Rhineland. Hitler’s forces then took a part of Czechoslovakia and later all of it. Remembering the costs of WW I, the West stood by hoping not to trigger WW II. Inaction didn’t have the desired result. Hitler went on to invade Russia. You know the rest of the story.
That’s why I say that WW III has already begun. Russia has invaded Ukraine using Hitler’s logic that he was “liberating” ethnic Germans in countries outside of Germany. It was, like Putin’s argument, pure bullshit. And the West is now trying to avoid WW III by using non-military means. That didn’t really work all that well last time.
So, what is the West to do? I think it needs to come to Ukraine’s defense in order to show Putin that his actions have led to exactly what he wanted to prevent – Ukraine’s alignment with Western Europe.
It seems to me that a nuclear deterrent is totally impotent unless one is willing to engage in conventional warfare without resorting to nukes. The West needs to set the terms of engagement.
- Declare that NATO forces will engage only the foreign forces in Ukraine, its airspace and territorial waters – not on Russian soil
- Make clear that the West will use nuclear weapons only if Russia deploys them first
- Make clear that if Russia deploys any kind of weapon against a country supporting Ukraine’s defense, it will be met with a response on Russian soil from all of NATO
Does that strategy make WW III more likely? It has already begun; we need to stop it; and sitting on our hands isn’t likely to work.