It is odd that no one seems very upset about Crimea being stolen from Ukraine by Russia. But it is a country that no one has heard of and it is so far away from the US. Yes, they did take a vote in Crimea to join Russia (under the watchful eye of 20,000 Russian troops not wearing any insignia), but that is not the point at all. If a vote was taken in Maine to join Canada, or in Southern California to join Mexico, would we just shrug our shoulders and say “whatever”? When groups of counties in California and Colorado try to secede and form new states, the news is full of stories and talking heads saying they cannot lawfully do that. But when it comes to foreign aggression, the result is a resounding “Who cares?”

Carlos Santayana said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Seventy-six years ago, Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia where a majority of residents were German. Again, Germany justified the move to protect the German residents against the Czech government, although there was no evidence of any discrimination. Now, I am not comparing Putin and the Russians to Hitler and the Nazis, but the similarity of the situations is startling.

Of course, you don’t have to look that far in the past to see the same thing. In 2008, Putin and Russia invaded and annexed part of the nation of Georgia. It was the same old story. “We must go in to protect our fellow Russians”, even though there was no evidence of harm to them. Where will this end? Will anyone care if all of Ukraine is annexed? What about Moldova? The Baltic States? Poland? Hungary? Eastern Germany? And the list of former Soviet satellites goes on.

My point is not that we should ship 100,000 troops (or any troops) into Ukraine. But when our leadership says Russia is acting out of weakness, or that Putin is acting like a 19th Century leader for whom there is no place among enlightened 21st Century leaders, the specter of their naiveté gives me a sick feeling in my gut. The world is a nasty place. Putin, Kim Jung Un, Mugabe, Khameini, Assad, and Bashir are all 21st Century leaders. You and I can go to Starbucks and have a latte, or sit back and write books about the future, but we cannot allow ourselves to be led by those who do not understand the dangers of the world around us. Let us not be blinded by our disinterest anymore. Martin Niemoeller famously said:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.

Check out the current status in Ukraine here: http://abcnews.go.com/International/ukraine-date-guide/story?id=22768235

It’s hard to believe the Cold War has been over for 25 years. Being a bit older, I grew up in the 50s and 60s during the Cold War. We actually did the drills in elementary school where you would “dug and cover” beneath your desk. Looking back on it, a cheap wood and steel desk would offer little protection against a high-yield thermonuclear blast. But the activity thrust the terrible reality into our little minds. My dad was in the Air Force, and for several years, his job was to fly the technicians to the various missile silos in the West from our base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Both the USSR and the USA had tens of thousands of missiles and warheads, only a few of which would have been necessary to eliminate all life on Earth. After so much time, it is hard to realize how things could have gotten so far out of control. Well, now we have Ukraine. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it is troubling to see the Russian Bear exercising its formidable power on another country. The people in every other former Soviet satellite country have to be quaking in their boots. What is it about the Russian psyche, or at least that of Russian leadership, to be so afraid of attack that they needed a number of buffer states to protect the Motherland?

I have two theories. On one hand, Russians have every right to fear intervention. Just look at the history books. Both Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte set their sights on Russia. In both cases, it did not turn out so well for the invaders. The other possibility is the desire for Empire. The glory days of Russia include the tales of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. Most governments and cultures have given up on Empire, but I am not certain Russia has. If they are still of such mind, the future looks very grim for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, all of which used to be under their hegemony.

The one factor I am certain has nothing to do with it is Communism, which never worked in the USSR and continues not to work in China, North Korea and Cuba. Let’s face it. None of those places are Communist. They are autocracies. The folks at the top control everything (what Marx called the Benevolent Dictator, two words that should never be placed together), and mete out the least they can to keep everyone else alive.

I used to work with a factory in Partizanske, Slovakia, part of Soviet Czechoslovakia. I had many meals and meetings with people who lived under the USSR. A Polish production manager once told me why he looked forward to Christmas every year. Each December, every family would be allowed to buy 2 pounds of bananas (from Cuba). That’s it! The rest of the year, there were no bananas. It was a Spartan life, contrasted by the Politburo and their palaces and luxuries.

Enough memories! What do you think is going to happen next? And if Russia moves into Ukraine, what do you think the rest of the world will or should do about it?