I am reminded this week by the shameful work of the current administration of Neville Chamberlain’s signing the Munich Agreement in 1938 with Germany’s Adolf Hitler, Fascist Italy and the French Republic. This agreement allowed Nazi Germany to annex Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. This act of appeasement only opened the door for Hitler’s subsequent aggressions. How is it that we invest so much in military power and yet back down with dishonor from the challenges of protecting free democracy when it comes to our allies. Apparently we can be bought off by promises of maybe a little real estate, business agreements, or a few hundred tons of mine tailings. 

Berating the vulnerable side of a war is not a road to peace. In our more honorable days we chose, after much vacillation, to fight with Great Britain against the Nazi aggression. Once a war has started, peace pulls away. Russia invaded Ukraine on a bet that our current President was weak in his first term and our national commitment was equally as weak. Apparently he bet right. Peace is not a business deal.

Good would have been in this case working with the victim nation in finding an honorable way out of the war. We missed the opportunity. It is this week’s short sighted amoral opportunism that is now in the way of a true peace agreement. Good for now is recognizing, at least as we wait for this country to wake up to it’s duties, that we must sacrifice now to restore this nation’s honor in the future. Our culture wars are not shooting wars for now, but the tinder is dry and we have immediate work to do before we push the possibility of world peace further into the shadows. Those who can still see the truth through the propaganda must pull together and invest our new coalition’s power in the art of peace.