Russia's President Vladimir Putin insists that the Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions are independent.  Of course, Putin's idea of "independent" means the two regions should be part of Mother Russia.  Does it matter?  Putin is only sending in troops to "maintain peace."

Haven't we seen this movie before?

In 1936, Adolf Hitler went into the Rhineland and reclaimed it for Germany.  And the world did nothing.

In 1938, Hitler marched into Austria, insisting that the people wanted Anschluss (union with Germany).  Demanding a vote, the Nazis fixed the election.  (Hmmm, where else have we heard about fixed elections?)

The fake result was that 99 percent of the Austrian people wanted to become part of Greater Germany.  Austrian prime minister Kurt Schuschnigg begged Britain, France, and Italy for aid to stop Hitler, but none came because all of them believed Hitler's promise that Anschluss was the end of his expansion plans.

Hitler lied.  Perhaps getting tired of vacations at his Obersalzberg chalet, a mere six months later, der Führer demanded that the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia become part of Germany.

Trying desperately to avoid war, Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler three times in September 1938.  The result was the Munich Agreement that had Chamberlain holding a useless piece of paper and infamously stating, "Peace for our time."  Most European countries celebrated the agreement that allowed Hitler to take the Sudetenland as long as der Führer promised not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.

In March 1939, Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Italy's Mussolini, who was busy making the trains run on time, was now aligned with his Nazi counterpart.  Now only Britain and France refused to hang swastikas in their embassy windows.

The world waited, hoping Hitler would stop invading.  In the meantime, European countries were disappearing (along with Jews and those Christians who didn't want to say, "Heil Hitler!").

Not to worry.  Britain and France had a great idea. If they just "threatened" Hitler with war, the short guy with a funny mustache would surely stay out of Poland.

Hitler laughed all the way to the Reichstag and invaded Poland in September 1939.  By then, there was nothing the world could do but belatedly go after Hitler.  World War II was the result.  It saw an estimated 80–85 million people perish, including six million Jews whom the Nazis systematically murdered.

So we have seen this movie before!

Image: Neville Chamberlain stating "peace for our time."  Public domain.

On February 21, Putin gave a long-televised speech from his Moscow office, where he claimed that Ukraine is an integral part of Russia's history.  Will history repeat itself with the Western world believing that all Putin wants are the Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions, when Putin is really focused on the entire country of Ukraine?  What about the other nations that used to be part of the Soviet Union?

Every honest person knows that if the 2020 election had not been stolen from Donald Trump and he was still in the White House, Putin would never have even looked at Ukraine, much less invaded.  But the Oval Office is occupied by a man who has a large "D" after his name — and that stands for dementia.  Where the American people expect strength and confidence from the president, with Joe Biden, you get stories about Corn Pop, incoherent ramblings, and defeat.  On February 17, Biden said: "My sense is [an invasion] will happen in the next several days."

No one should be surprised by Biden's actions, since this is the same guy who abandoned Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 and left $85 billion in sophisticated military equipment for the Taliban.  Thanks to Joey, the Taliban is now one of the most advanced military forces in the region.

As Biden's grueling two-hour workdays keep him home practicing in front of a teleprompter for the March 1 State of the Union speech, he sent Vice President Kamala Harris to the Ukraine/Russian border.  Having done such an outstanding job at the Mexico–United States border, it made complete sense to send Harris overseas for a Neville Chamberlain–like "peace for our time" visit.

In keeping with her astute understanding of world history, while in Munich, Harris exclaimed:

I mean, listen, guys, we're talking about the potential for war in Europe. I mean, let's really take a moment to understand the significance of what we're talking about. It's been over 70 years. And through those 70 years, as I mentioned yesterday, there has been peace and security. We are talking about the real possibility of war in Europe.

George Santayana once said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  With Biden and Harris running things, we might be condemned to "war for our time."