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Deja vu All Over Again!

2012 Spectator Ron - The Spectator All Rights Reserved

C

        With appreciation to famed Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra, who coined the malapropism, “It’s Déjà vu all over again.”
        What the Yogi meant was “Here we go again.”
        That’s what an increasing count of people across this great land are thinking (not yet ready to open up and talk about “it” publicly).
        The “it” in question is the similarity between what Vladimir Putin, potentate and ruler of Russia, is doing to his neighbor, how he’s doing it and what Adolph Hitler did in 1938 and 1939 in Czechoslovakia.
        Starting in 1938 Hitler stood on his podium and ranted and raved that the majority of the citizens living in the Sudetenland spoke German, were German and rightfully belonged to Germany. He yelled and screamed about the unfairness of these thousands of German-speaking humans having to live not in Germany but in Czechoslovakia. Hitler emoted about how unconscionable the situation was. He kvetched so much that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich to meet with Hitler and Benito Mussolini to find and agree on a solution to the problem of the Sudetenland and Hitler’s wishes to save the poor German souls living there.
        The upshot was that Chamberlain gave the Sudetenland to Hitler if he would promise not to want anything else. Hitler swore on a pile of Mein Kampfs that if he could have the Sudetenland he would retreat to Berlin and be a good boy. After shaking hands on the deal to give part of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis Chamberlain flew back to London and exclaimed that his wheeling and dealing with the top Nazi brought, “Peace in our time.”
        The world now knows that Hitler was lying through his teeth as he shook hands with Chamberlain on the deal.
        Hitler used the time after the signing in Munich to build more tanks,
fashion more Nazi helmets, construct more canons and increase the size of his army.
        Then, on March 15, 1939, as the ink on the pact in Munich was still drying, the Nazis invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia and World War II began.
        Now we have Vladimir Putin moving his Russian troops into the Crimea and in less than three weeks annexes it to Russia – without a shot being fired.
        Now King Putin is flooding the southern Ukraine with “representatives” (not soldiers for God’s sake!). Does any reflective human doubt that Putin isn’t right now planning to take over the Ukraine, hopefully without firing a shot?
        Putin’s claim is that because millions of the Ukraine’s populace speak Russian that the Ukraine would be better off being part of Russia. Sound familiar?
        The United States has penalized Russia for taking over Crimea. In effect, we’ve lowered his charge-card limit. President Obama is thinking of other ways to “spank” Putin for grabbing Crimea. In the meantime Putin is surrounding the Ukraine with Russian “representatives” (not soldiers for God’s sake!). The Russians are playing “Gimme that land!” and America is yelling “Bad boy, bad boy.”
        If it were a football game the ‘Vegas odds would be high in favor of Putin and his Russian “representatives” marching into the Ukraine to free those Russian-speaking souls and returning that land to the mother country.
        One doesn’t mass tens of thousands of Russian troops on the Ukraine’s eastern border without a concrete plan for another land grab.
        Legendary Yankee catcher Yogi Berra may not have been a serious student of European history, but he sure knew what he was talking about when he said, “It’s Déjà vu all over again.”
        If it walks like a duck, smells like a duck and acts like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
        The majority of Americans do not want us involved in a war.
        Most of the world didn’t want a war in 1939.