RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Opinion) You remember critically important moments from your childhood even if you didn’t fully understand what was going on at the time.
I was only seven years old on the evening of December 7, 1941, when the radio comedy the whole family was listening to was interrupted by the news that the US naval base at Pearl Harbor had been devastatingly attacked by the Japanese and the second world war had instantly expanded.
Talk about mood changes; I remember most clearly how my parents’ whole demeanor changed and became darker and more fragile even after two years since German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering World War II.
Now, as I watch the ongoing news of Vladimir Putin’s mad invasion of Ukraine, it is impossible not to remember Hitler’s Obersalzberg speech to Wehrmacht commanders on August 22, 1939, in which he clearly laid out his vision of world dominance. No doubt Putin draws inspiration from it.
Putin’s style is hardly more subtle. His threat to the Western powers: “Whoever tries to interfere with us, and even more so, to create threats for our country, for our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history.” And just in case that wasn’t clear enough, he added a reminder of Russia’s nuclear capability if any country tried to attack Russia in retaliation for its Ukraine invasion.
During WWII, we got our news primarily from newspapers and the radio. It was, at best, days behind the action. Almost everything we learned had already happened. That diminished the immediacy and the impact.
Today’s media cornucopia invites us to view the carnage in real-time. Correspondents from every outlet are on the battlefield providing what sometimes looks more like a made-for-TV series than a real war. For weeks we have heard Putin lie about Russia’s intentions, watched President Biden release bundles of intelligence to frustrate Russian initiatives and threaten the sanctions which have now been put in place.
For the Ukrainian families jammed into metro stations used as bomb shelters, it’s no TV series, it’s very real, and the memories of British civilians taking shelter in the London underground during the Blitz are overwhelming. Somehow the statement “it’s going to be a difficult night” seems a wishful understatement.
We ask ourselves, is this the beginning of WWIII, the crazy dream of an autocrat to turn back the clock of history and try to re-establish the previous Soviet empire, no matter the cost in blood and treasure? As we know, Hitler moved rapidly through a largely under-prepared Europe. Fortunately, that is not the case today.
The 30 NATO signatory countries appear to be better united than they have been for some years. President Biden made it clear that the US would protect “every inch of NATO territory”. The organization’s charter makes it clear that all the members will act together to protect any member. Said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg: “We have decided, in line with our defensive planning to protect all allies, to take additional steps to further strengthen deterrence and defense across the Alliance.”
One would have thought that despite the US political polarization, all but very fringe voices would have condemned Putin’s actions. Not so: Fox News’ highly influential talking head Tucker Carlson made it clear to his millions of right-wing viewers that the US should not care about Russia invading Ukraine. Like Trump, his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has also routinely praised Putin in recent weeks.
So, what are we to make of this breakdown of a European order which has kept the peace since the end of WWII? Will Putin’s “special military operation” be the prelude for more aggression and the danger of a nuclear holocaust? Or will the sanctions placed on him and his regime bite deep enough to make him think again before expanding his ambitions?
Tune in for the next episode and hope it turns out better than the last.
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