The only problem with this theory is that the people of Crimea willingly voted to join the Russian federation. Has Victor Davis Hanson ever heard of self determination?
The Hitler comparisons are ridiculous. Hitler invaded countries killing millions. How many people have the Russians killed in Ukraine?
Someone should make a movie about czarist Russia so that people like Victor Davis Hanson can extend his historical knowledge beyond Hitler and the second world war.
Obviously, somebody here is woefully defective in their understandings of history, but it's not Victor Davis Hanson.
Hitler invaded five different territories before Neville Chamberlain figured out what he was up to.
In four of those territories, Hitler's armies were wildly welcomed by majority-German populations: Rhineland, Saarland, Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Each time the western allies backed down, did nothing, negotiated for "peace in our time".
So Hitler reasonably got the firm conviction that he could go anywhere, do anything, and the allies were "worms".
He was therefore genuinely shocked -- yes, shocked! -- when they declared war on Germany just for invading Poland.
But by then it was far too late to stop Hitler, and the Second World War was on.
Putin today, like Hitler in 1938 has two territories under his belt -- Georgia and Crimea -- and is working on his third, Eastern Ukraine.
So the question is: where will the West draw a serious line to stop him? After his second territory? Or the third?
Or do we give Putin, like Hitler, four countries before we draw the line at the fifth?
BarnacleCenturion: "The Hitler comparisons are ridiculous.
Hitler invaded countries killing millions.
How many people have the Russians killed in Ukraine?"
No, FRiend, it's you who are woefully defective in your understandings of history.
Putin today is precisely equivalent to democratically elected Chancellor Hitler in, say, 1938 -- he merely claims to occupy what is "rightfully" his.
And the West today, like Chamberlain in 1938, negotiates & negotiates to achieve "peace in our time".