Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians, I posted a comment on my Facebook page about the world needing to come to the aid of the Ukrainians. A relative of mine from Italy posted a response to the effect that he did not believe that war was the answer and that the Russian people need to decide who leads them. In other words, the usual hackneyed call of "war is not the answer." Well, I agree, war is never the answer. I participated in a war in Vietnam in the 1960s. I know first hand what war is. So what do you do when some hoodlums break into your house with guns with the intent of killing you and your family and taking your property? Do you just say, I'm against war and violence? What did the Europeans do when they were attacked by Adolf Hitler in World War II? Do you not defend yourself?
In an interview with CNN and a piece in the Italian Daily newspaper, Corriere Della Sera, former Russian Oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, explains the mind set of Vladimir Putin, the insane tyrant of Russia. Khodorkovsky explains that Putin only understands force, negotiations or diplomacy are useless. He knows Putin like no one else. He was a close associate of his until he displeased him somehow. He was arrested and spent 10 years in a Russian prison.
Putin is not an isolated case. Diplomacy was tried by the Europeans in 1938 with Hitler when the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed "peace in our time" when they let him have part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland. Hitler invaded the rest of Europe shortly thereafter. Was "war is not the answer" then? There are dozens of other examples. In short, "war is not the answer" is a fool's response to violence.
Before Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte tried to conquer all of Europe for France. Should the Europeans have responded with "war is not the answer? There comes a time when mindless phrases such as "war is not the answer" cannot be used because it represents wishful thinking and not based on reality.
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