Give Peace a Chance?

"Give Peace a Chance"  was an anti-war song by John Lennon recorded in 1969.  The  refrain is "All we are saying is give peace a chance."  Vietnam was the war. I was a participant in this war as an American soldier; I can understand the refrain.  Over 59,000 of my fellow soldiers gave their life in Vietnam for a misplaced political neurosis of the Washington politicians who really did not know what they were doing, starting with John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. The US Congress can be included here too.

We now have a war going on in Ukraine.  Many nations are appalled by the evil brought on the Ukrainian people and have provided weapons to Ukraine.  The United States and many others have imposed sanctions on the evil Russian regime led led by the tyrant Vladimir Putin. In the September 24, 2022 edition of the Wall Street Journal, there is a story about the Italian elections coming up this week.  One of the biggest controversies in Italian politics is should Italy provide weapons to Ukraine as well as sanctions on Russia.  The Italian people are divided; about half of the people do not favor sanctions, fearing economic retaliation by the Russians.   The leader of the right leaning party, La Lega, Matteo Salvini, a Putin supporter, is against sanctions and ignores the evil Putin has done in Ukraine. Some others on the right favor sanction and providing weapons.

Italian politicians not favoring sanction or poroviding weapons to Ukraine, repeat the same refrain, give peace a chance.  In their words, Italy should be mediating between the warring factions.  Now, either these people live in an alternative universe or they are denying reality.  So, you just call up Putin and talk him into ending his war, right?  Have they tried that?  If so, what result did they get?  We tried this type of diplomacy in 1938 with Hitler.  After he conquered half of Czechoslovakia, the Europeans entered into an "agreement" with Hitler providing that he not attack another country.  How did that work out?  When will they learn? Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oligarch and the richest Russian until he displeased Putin. His empire was seized by Putin and he spent 10 years in jail, says that Putin only understands force.  Diplomacy is useless.

Back to John Lennon's song "Give Peace a Chance."  So, what were the Ukrainians supposed to do when 150,000 Russian soldiers, their armored cars and ballistic missiles raining down on Ukraine?  Should they just play John Lennon's song to the approaching Russians and have a big sign saying "give peace a chance"?  As a former soldier who participated in a war, I agree that war is not the answer, but what do you do when attacked; just lay down?

The Italian politicians, and anyone else for that matter, who does not support sending weapons to Ukraine and supporting sanctions is cooperating with evil, I have just some questions for them: what will you do when the same evil comes to your back door? What will you do after the Russians conquer Ukraine and then go for the rest of the former Soviet Union?  Will you just sing "Give Peace a Chance"?  Will you not want others to help you?  Denying reality will not solve the problem.