Right from the Middle: Ukraine fight reminds us of Poland in 1939

By William O. Lipinski

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is in a tremendous amount of trouble and it may not survive much longer.

Set up to bring peace, stability, unity and democracy to Europe, NATO is no longer unified.

This has become plainly obvious as our land of liberty has tried to put together a strong force opposing Russia’s aggressive move against Ukraine.

Who are the weak links in this unity? Germany, and those who have lost confidence in the greatness of America to maintain our protection and support for an independent Ukraine.

They believe defending Ukraine is not in our best interests and is an overreach by the West.

William O. Lipinski former Congressman from Illinois (5th and later 3rd District). Photo courtesy of Wikipedia — William O. Lipinski former Congressman from Illinois (5th and later 3rd District).

Germany the nation that has benefited the most by far from NATO is in the process of severely weakening it, and perhaps destroying it.

Germany’s Navy chief resigned last week after he send a message of appeasement to Russia saying that President Putin should be respected, and Crimea will never be returned to Ukraine Germany has made a decision to close all of its nuclear reactors by the end of 2022 thereby making it more dependent upon Russian Energy imports.

The leader off the Conservative Party has said excluding Russia from the Swift Payment Transactions Network that handles global financial transfers would be harmful to Germany.

Germany has refused to allow NATO countries to ship German made weapons to Ukraine.

Germany is trying to stop Estonia from shipping howitzers to Ukraine, these weapons were manufactured in the Soviet Union, sent to East Germany at the time of the Cold War. At the time of the unification of Germany the howitzers were sold to Finland, and later sold to Estonia.

Yet Germany is saying they still have control of these weapons.

Germany is one of the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of military weapons in the world, but they do not want them going to Ukraine to defend itself from Russian aggression.

The Germans will not even allow flights carrying weapons to Ukraine to fly thru their airspace.

And, the Germans do not support the stopping of importing of Russian gas and oil, which would cost Russia billions and billions and perhaps stop them from invading Ukraine.

Could it be that Germany and Russia are thinking of establishing a pact like they had back in 1939? That was a disaster for Poland and even more so for Germany.

Then we have those in our Land of the Pilgrim’s Pride that believe this Fortress of Freedom, we call the United States of America is no longer strong enough and capable enough of stopping aggression in this world.

They say Ukraine is at Russia’s doorstep and we should not try to interfere in an area that close to Russia.

They say Ukraine is a flawed democracy, economically week, internally divided, and politically corrupt.

They contend we should not try to pull Ukraine out of the Russian orbit.

They say Ukraine is not a true liberal democracy and belongs in the east with Russia not with freedom loving liberal democratic people.

They say Ukrainians and Russians are Slavic people and belong together. Do they believe all Slavic people should be ruled by Russia?

The Slavic countries are Czech Republic, Bosnia, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria Macedonia Croatia Slovenia and Montenegro. Belarus is also a Slavic country but it is currently ruled by Russia.

These same people say we must keep our eyes on the real enemy China, and we cannot be involved in two international situations at the same time, because we are not strong enough.

That’s what some said back in 19 41 when we had to fight a World War on two fronts and supply the arms for all our allies.

I believe China is the number one threat to freedom and democracy in this world.

But, we cannot allow a regional power to think it’s also a world power. I still believe in America’s greatness, and our ability to bring freedom and democracy to more and more of the world, while protecting our own citizens.

(William O. Lipinski served in Congress representing the 5th and 3rd Congressional District from 1982 until 2005. Email Bill at [email protected].)

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William Lipinski

William Oliver Lipinski is a former U.S. Representative from the State of Illinois. He served as the Democratic Committeeman from the Chicago 23rd Ward from 1975 and as Alderman of the Ward until he was elected to the Congress in 1982.

Lipinski writes the "Right from the Middle" Column twice each month.

Born in Chicago, Cook County, Ill and graduated fromSt. Patrick High School, Chicago, Ill., 1956; attended Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa, 1956-1957; United States Army Reserves, 1961-1967.

Lipinski was elected alderman, Chicago, Ill., city council, 1975-1982; He was a delegate to: the Democratic National Midterm Convention, 1974; Democratic National Convention, 1976 and 1984; Illinois state Democratic convention, 1977.

He was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-eighth and to the ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1983-January 3, 2005)

His email is [email protected]

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