Politics: How many Opportunities did the Western Powers Have for Stopping Hitler, the Isis of the 1930s, before the Outbreak of World War II?

"You got to stop them at the beginning. Like they shoulda stopped Hitler at Munich, they should never let him get away with that, they were just asking for big trouble when they let him get away with that.”¹

¹Mario Puzo, the Godfather. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969. Page 119.

I agree with Peter Clemenza.  I think that Hitler had to be stopped at Munich.

 

Tragic Lesson from History

Actually, the Western powers (Great Britain and France) could have and should have stopped Hitler long before the Munich Crisis of 1938, which enabled Hitler to gain the Czech Sudetenland. The Western powers had the opportunity to force Hitler to retreat when he reoccupied the Rhineland.

At that moment, Hitler confided to someone that he would have ordered his forces to retreat back to Germany had the Western powers made the effort to stop him then. Instead of forcefully ordering him back, the Western powers sent a feeble protest. Then, there was the Anschluss in which Germany annexed Austria. Again, the Western response was merely to state another feeble protest at this action.

 

The Danger of Cuddling up to a Homicidal Maniac with Power

 

How was Hitler supposed to feel when he made suchbold moves and the only response from those parties whom he initially feared was a series of feeble protests?

Then came the Munich Crisis. In this situation, both the Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, who were at that time the Prime Ministers of France and Great Britain, had the opportunity to put Hitler in his place.

They could have let Hitler scream and yell about the mistreatment of the Sudentenland Germans by Czechs as much as he wanted but when he began demanding territory beyond what he already had under his belt, their answer to him should have been no. What do they do instead?

They sacrificed Czechoslovakia. They forced this country’s government to cede the Sudetenland, a large part of that country, to Germany based on Hitler’s lie of not seeking further territorial grabs.

Setting a Bad Example

 

This was a golden opportunity for the Western powers to show the world, to show both Russia and Nazi Germany that international law was not something to be played with frivolously. As a consequence of the weakness, Russia which would have earlier on stood up to Hitler with military force, instead made a deal with Hitler; the bloody mess of Europe followed was made.

Had the Western powers’ leaders put their feet down and stopped Hitler there and then at Munich, it is very possible that there would have been no second world war.

The weakness, the reluctance of these two leaders of these two democracies who could have put Hitler down, instead demonstrated a pathetic lack of leadership, a cowardice that emboldened him greatly; as a consequence millions of people died unnecessarily.

Thus, Peter Clemenza, the fictional character in the Godfather novel the one who remarked that they should have stopped Hitler at Munich demonstrated great insight and hindsight.

Toward the end of the Godfather novel, you end up with a mafia conference of numerous crime families’ heads gathered. In that meeting, the first to address that meeting is Don Vito Corleone. He began his speech by asking, “How did things get so far?”

There are countless quotations that would explain how the weakness and reluctance of a powerful would be rescuer cripples the rightful commitment to stop evil from being done.

 

Fast Forward to Threat of the Hitler of Today, Yes, ... Today

Now, as this article is being writen – there has arisen a new threat called Isis. It is a new Islamic terrorist organization currently murdering with gun and blade - Christians in Iraq and Syria. They impaled Syrian soldiers and have shot, stoned to death, crucified, and slashed heads off of Christian Iraqi men, women, little children, and babies.

Many of these Christian Iraqis have been forced to flee from their homes in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Countless Christian Iraqis have been murdered, beheaded or even crucified by these Isis monsters simply because they would not convert to Islam.

A small percentage of Iraqi Christians did convert to Islam. But most fled to areas of Iraq currently under Kurdish control. In my estimation, this terrorist organization, Isis, is the Third Reich of the 21^st century.
 

What shall we Civilized People Do about this New Threat?

Who dares to step forward to stop this murder spree now being waged by the Isis terrorists? The only person who is doing a little bit is Obama, the American president. He ordered a series of airstrikes against the advancing Isis terrorists. He however has ruled out deploying US ground troops. 

How inferior has been Obama's reaction to that of former President Bill Clinton, a fellow Democrat leader who stepped in to halt lesser murder campaigns in Bosnia and later in Haiti. 

What benefit will this series of military actions,  these airstrikes, accomplish? At this point it’s too soon to tell. But airstrikes are inadequate as a deterrence to halt such an aggressive and motivated people such as the Isis terrorists. As soon as the US jets leave, Isis will resume the bloodbath.

What Now, what Do We Do?

After having listened to one of the attorneys at the law firm where I work. I concur when he stated that a coalition of nations including, but not limited to the United States - should be formed to put an end to this murderous crusade of Isis.

The coalition should include the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and China: whatever other country has stakes to lose should Isis triumph in its quest for first Middle Eastern domination, and then world conquest. Russia's southern areas are particularly vulnerable to Islamic infiltration.

According to an article written in the website of http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/russias-domestic-security-9650?pages=1 and 2, "Russia's Muslim trouble resembles Pakistan's more than it resembles that of the United States." 

Putin has more to worry about within the internal borders of the Russian Federation than he does with the Ukraine. 

Moreover, China is having a Muslim trouble in Xinjiang, one of its provinces where there are much Muslim rumblings. It  could get out of hand for China if Isis infiltrates that province.

According to the Washington Post article dated 5/22/2014, in Urumqi, capital city of  Xinjiang, there occurred a terror attack with explosives which resulted in 31 deaths.

Now there is much handwringing worldwide about Isis. Back during the pre-World War II eve, there was also much handwringing about Hitler's policies and aggressiveness.

Hitler with great boldness seized some territory that was not his to take.  The great Western powers did nothing in the early stages of his land-grabbing campaign to stop him. 

When they then could no longer ignore his aggression, war resulted - a worldwide conflagration costing between 50 to 70 million lives - of which 22 million or even more of these killed were lives of Russians alone. Poland, the first country to be devoured by Hitler through force, lost fewer lives lost than the Soviet Union.

However, Poland, in proportion to her total population lost a far greater percentage of her population in terms of lives lost than did Russia.

Moreover, beginning on September 17, 1939, an portion of that huge percentage of lives lost that Poland on its Eastern regions suffered - was caused by the Soviet Union's military forces as the consequence of the Nazi Soviet Pact signed on August 23, 1939.

This war, World War II could have been prevented at a much earlier stage but vacillation on the part of decent men who only want peace  and surrendered honor for it - failed to achieve it in the end because they had to declare war on Nazi Germany after all.

Moreover, Neville Chamberlain left the British Government a broken man when the Parliament forced him to resign after the fiasco in Norway.

Today, with this situation regarding the Isis terrorists

 

The world has a parallel dilemma at hand - in some ways similar to that of Chamberlain and Daladier in 1938 and 1939. Christians and Jews are being murdered by the thousands and tens of thousands worldwide, especially in the Islamic controlled regions of the world.  The world does nothing. 

I remember very well how resolved was the world to pressure the Government of Praetoria in South Africa to end Apartheid until at last, that government finally relented. Nelson Mandela who was originally condemned to die and then made to serve a long prison sentence was released and won the presidency of the country that wanted to get rid of him.

That which the world did was a noble thing.  Apartheid was brutal and inhuman. Eventually, something will have to give.

How long will it be for the world to respond forcefully enough to the murderous jihad now being waged by Isis?  Will we let them conquer us? Or not. If not, then there will have to be war.

It’s understandable and honorable for people to hate war. It’s honorable and good to hate to kill other people. Sane people hate killing other people.

A person has got to be mentally sick in the head and with a stone heart to permit himself or herself to do murder.

 

Sometimes You Do War just to Stay Alive

 

But then, to kill a horde of murderous terrorists before they get to kill you, amounts to self-preservation. Killing in order to defend yourself is not a right but an obligation, a most moral duty.

To kill an aggressor who comes to kill you or oppress you and do harm to you, your family, your children, your friends, to destroy your community – is self-preservation, is a duty of the highest morality, is the only correct decision to be made in the event of moral crisis.
 

We're Now Repeating the Mistakes of the Past Since We Didn't Learn from History

Just as it was morally obligatory for the Western powers to put an end, by military force, to the military aggression of Adolf Hitler until the military establishment of Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers, so is it morally obligatory for what is left of the civilized world today to act in union to destroy, totally destroy -  no, not just contain, this diabolical organization, this Isis. 

Like Hitler, like Isis