In my last blog I pointed out how current events are a replay of the 1930s when international bullies were allowed to get away with murder, conquest, and slavery because other countries were afraid to stand against them. People who believed themselves to be reasonable thought diplomacy would work and the bullies played the long game agreeing to negotiations but never stopping their aggression for it was the aggressive behavior upon which they depended to keep the “reasonable” diplomats at the table. But anyone with any experience in the nature of the human condition knows that bullies can never be appeased and that the very behavior that makes them a bully makes them think that a “reasonable” approach is, in itself, a cowering response to their Might makes Right attitude. You see, bullies are not and never have been, reasonable people and attempting to deal with them reasonably is futile.
So then, how does one deal with a bully? Simple, you stand up to them and if they threaten you then punch them in the nose, for if you do not do it now you will either wind up being bullied forever or the eventual slugfest will be much more costly. Look to your history books and you will learn this. Appeasement has never worked. The very fact that Russia is threatening an invasion of Ukraine should be reason enough to begin economic sanctions. The fact that China is making provocative military actions in Taiwan airspace should be enough to begin economic sanctions. Just as businesses hurt by the Chinese inspired chip shortage have now decided to build chip factories in the US, so too should the US government be looking to reestablish our energy independence and providing tax incentives to companies who return their factories to US soil. Do not offer Russia incentives not to invade for, as with Hitler and the Japanese in the 1930s they cannot be appeased. They have no legitimate grievances to resolve. This is solely a bully taking advantage of a world cowering from a virus and weakened by autocrats seeking to establish themselves domestically.
Don’t wait to act and don’t think that diplomacy will solve this issue. The current administration drags with it the baggage of a previous administration’s failure to act when the Crimea peninsula was invaded or when the Syrians used chemical weapons in Iraq. Allowing bullies to dictate world events cannot be tolerated. The question is: does this administration have the political will to stand up to bullies?