#294 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday March 9)
Good morning,
THE EERILY FAMILIAR BULLYING OF PEACEFUL NEIGHBORS
It is often said that history does not repeat itself—but it rhymes. The events unfolding in Ukraine invoke a scary “I feel like I’ve seen this movie before” feeling. In the 1930s, Hitler incorporated Austria through the Anschluss, in order to join together the historic Germanic empires of Germany and Austro-Hungary. Later in 1938, his appetite expanded to include the “liberation” of traditional Germanic communities in what was then Czechoslovakia. But incorporation of the Sudetenland was just the beginning, eventually encompassing a full occupation of Czechoslovakia.
West of Russia, in the former Soviet Republics, Russian is making inroads to reincorporate lands it considers “traditional” parts of the Russian empire. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. Through support of its autocratic leader, Belarus has become a close ally and client state. Then Russia annexed the Crimea (part of Ukraine) and subsequently invaded Ukraine. Were Russia able to swallow up Ukraine as Mr. Putin believed at the outset, the Baltics and other FSU states would be at risk. They still are but perhaps not as immediately.
POETRY ON FEAR GIVING WAY TO SOMETHING GREATER
FEAR
By Khalil Gibran
"It is said that before
entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path
she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing
forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more
than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river cannot go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible
in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will
fear disappear,
because that’s where
the river will know
it’s not about disappearing
into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean."
A SONG FOR UKRAINE
From Gregg Leach, an old Sting song “Russians,” recently recorded again, with a dedication to the people of Ukraine:
The introduction is powerful and the chorus is pretty chilling and prescient:
“We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us me and you
Is if the Russians love their children too.”
Have a great day,
Glenn