Nothing that Vladimir Putin has done in gobbling up territories of the former Soviet Union is new. In fact, he simply apes every tyrant’s time-honored four-step plan of aggression.
INVADE, WAIT — AND INVADE
From Philip of Macedon to Napoleon, aggressors did not necessarily have a grand timetable for creating an empire. Instead, they went at it ad hoc. They took as much as they could at any given time; then backed away for a bit, if they sensed strong opposition was building — only to go back on the offensive when vigilance waned.
Hitler did not realistically believe in 1936 that he would within five years create an empire from the Atlantic to the Volga. Instead, he started out by moving incrementally — in the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia — testing where he might grab land without a war, always both surprised at the ease of his success and full of contempt for the appeasers who had so empowered him.
So too Putin. Once the Obama administration had reset the mild punishments of the Bush administration for carving out parts of Ossetia, Putin went back on the move. Obama’s reset was a green light for Putin. Who in the real world of serious diplomacy shows up in Geneva with a red plastic toy reset button, complete with a mistranslated Russian label? When Putin soon sized up the Obama administration’s appeasement around the globe — from fake red lines for Syria, to a scramble out of Iraq, to chaos in Libya — he moved into Crimea. And then he waited.
More @ Victor Hanson
I haven't agreed with much that Hanson has written in quite awhile, especially on this matter. This recent installment changes nothing for me. Hanson needs to worry more about what is happening in his dear California and the rest of our own nation. In the end, it's all Tribal.
ReplyDeleteHe has written some critical pieces on the Mexican infestation around the area where he lives, as I remember.
DeleteI remember when he used to do that, but haven't noticed much since the recent invasion - I could be wrong, just have seen more on the Red threat lately. Obama seems like a bigger bully, and he isn't even shilling for his own country. It could all be street theater for Thee and Me - we the Peasantry!
ReplyDeleteThee and Me - we the Peasantry!
Delete:) Who have to be controlled, so they can live their lives properly.
That's kind of like how the US nabbed Hawaii - invaded by the Military Industrial
ReplyDeleteComplex. "You'l become a US state or else."
A deal you can't turn down. :)
DeleteHumm---Putin a great tactician who cares about his country and its ethnic people and heritage. Obama, Reid, Boehner, Shumer, Feinstein....etc all "federal citizens" who just care about themselves and are very happy destroying the ethnic people and their heritage in the FUSA.
ReplyDeleteLet's see....I'll take Putin.
Agreed, the better of the two commies. :)
DeleteMe three and his shoes.
ReplyDelete:)
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