OUR MORAL OBLIGATION

 “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” When in attempting to warn the British about the dangers of appeasement Winston Churchill uttered that phrase; he was actually quoting a Spanish Philosopher George Santayana.

That was a lesson forgotten in the early 1930s. The French and British without a whimper let Hitler to militarily reoccupy the west bank of the Rhine.  And, the League of Nations blew hot air.

In 1938 when Hitler seized Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, instead of confronting him; Chamberlain replied with his “Peace in our time” agreement.

When Japan in the 30s occupied Manchuria and committed atrocities as seized control of much of China the West could not be concerned about the affairs of those insignificant “yellow people”.

We watched Stalin join with Hitler to each split and annex what was Poland. Friends to the end.

In the early forties our isolationist Senators and political leaders like Senators Borah and Nye as well as popular hero Lindberg convinced a willing nation that what was happening in Europe was not our concern.

10 years later the results of WWII included between 60 to 85 million deaths of which some 38 to 55 million were civilian. That includes the 5 to 6 million Jews annihilated by Hitler along with another million plus gypsies, mentally impaired individuals , and other members of the “sub-human races” (Nazi definition for non “Anglo-Saxon”).

Also included are the 3 to4 million Soviet citizens that were Stalin’s own victims. The totals do include those victims in the Far East.

That is the heritage of my generation.

Of course those are just estimated numbers since; except those of the methodical Germans, there were few actual records available or kept.

Today, with the Syrian chemical issue we may be repeating the mistakes that lead to WWII. If nothing is done to show that we will not tolerate such atrocities against innocent civilians there is a great possibility that there will be an increasing flaunting by North Korea and Iran.

If North Korea believes that it can get away with it; using the threat of its atomic bombs there will be aggression against South Korea and Japan

Iran with its nuclear capabilities will menace the whole mid-East, including Israel. And some grandiose idiot in one of those countries; or in Africa or South America will embark on an attempt to become a world ruler.

Don’t laugh; Hitler did not have the bomb when he started on his adventure to have the pure race thousand years Reich dominate the world. At the same time those who had the power to stop him were afraid of causing a war.

The West and importantly America cannot hope to have Putin’s Russia pressure nations that it supports with weapons of warfare, to cease their hostile provocations. Nor will it condemn Syria for its use of a weapon which by paralyzing muscle caused an asphyxia death for over a thousand civilians including at least 400 children.

China has embarked tentatively on an aggressive policy in the Far East. It needs North Korea as a threat.

However it is unlikely that the leaders of those powers would initiate warlike action against any of the Western nations over a spanking of Syria. A threat to Russia or China leaders’ own power control is the only trigger that would lead them to risk a war.

By my advocating limited in scope military action against Syria does not mean that I am a war-monger. I have seen war first hand. Although thankfully not in the foxholes I have experienced anti-aircraft fire, shelling etc and have given front line treatment to the victims of enemy fire. I have treated German slave labor. 

I pray we never again have an all out war. Never the less there are risks that we must take that can lead to American loss of life if the alternative in the long run will be a greater danger.

President Obama will speak to the nation Tuesday night. I support his cause. We cannot turn our backs on an immoral murdering of innocent civilians.

I hope that our Congressmen and Senators will place what are our moral and international interests above their own desire to appease their constituents in order to be reelected next November.

I write this knowing that I alone cannot influence my Representative or Senators but in the hope that the 200 hundred blog readers will do their best to see that our President gets our support.

By the way, the real author of that famous remark was Edmund Burke (1729-79) an Irish born British Whig Member of Parliament but who supported the American Revolution who stated “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”