The Second World War started on September 3, 1939 when Great Britain, its colonies, and later its Dominions, declared war on Germany.
Without that decision by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, egged on by Winston Churchill, a long-running dispute betaween Germany and Poland over the Danzig Corridor would have resulted in a nasty, but short, European war.
Just how short is worth remembering; Germany, the Soviet Union and Slovakia gobbled up Poland in just 36 days, from September 1st to October 6th, 1939 with a death toll of about 85,000. Once Britain got involved, and then subsequently the United States, the war went on for five years and the toll in Europe went up to between 15 and 20 Million
This was exactly the kind of escalation that happened in WWI when Britain opted to join a war that involved Germany and Austria against Serbia, Russia and France. The toll was staggering, 40 Million, a fact remembered every year on November 11.
We know the involvement of outsiders is the key factor in making wars worse and casualties rise because of the contrast when outsiders stay out. In 1870, when France invaded Prussia on July 19, 1870, Britain stayed out of it, Germany won the war, and a victory parade was held down the Champs-Élysées on March 1, 1871, just half a year later.
Some will say, principle is more important than the pain caused. Well, let’s talk about principle. The Polish corridor to the sea and the hand-over of the German port of Danzig was dictated by the Allied powers at the Versailles Peace Conference. It was sliced out of Prussia and given to Poland, isolating East Prussia from the rest of Germany.
Germany wanted access across the strip, as well as a plebiscite in Danzig. Poland, relying on a promise of British support, rejected the idea out of hand. Ironically, Germany would have settled for a neutral Poland. Instead Britain turned it into a belligerent.
And what of the Soviet Union? It had its own axe to grind. A review of the Polish/Soviet War of 1919-2021 will show you that Poland invaded Russia then fighting a civil war, was beaten back by the Red Army and recovered at the last moment. In 1939, the Soviets, then in an alliance with Germany, hadn’t forgotten that slight and so were happy to help slice up their neighbour.
All of which brings us to today and the Ukrainian war. This war began when the U.S. State department, allied with various N.G.O.’s staged a “color revolution” in Kiev in 2014. This led to the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government and its replacement by a rabidly anti-Russian group of American sponsored rebels. These, once in power, began restricting the rights of the Russian minority in Eastern Ukraine. Those residents, told they couldn’t use the Russian language, revolted and formed two independent countries Luhansk and Donetsk.
The central, illegal, Ukrainian government then began attacking the two breakaway republics in the Donbas, killing residents indiscriminately for eight years.
Russia, alarmed at NATO expansion, and worried about the Donbas, tried to reach an agreement with Ukraine in the Minsk Agreement, but this was scuttled by Ukraine on the advice of British ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Incredibly, we see Britain, once again, providing moral support to a belligerent regime, sabotaging a peace treaty, prolonging a war, and sharply increasing the death toll.
Russia, fed up with diplomacy, finally invaded in 2022. For NATO nations this constituted year one, even though it was actually year eight in an on-going effort to pressure Russia. Moving NATO east and fomenting a revolution in Ukraine was bad enough, but then NATO called for the Russian Federation to actually be defeated on the battlefield!
If, God help us, Russia actually finds itself in mortal danger, it will resort to nuclear weapons and we will be well and truly in WWIII. That’s why the picture of the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is at the head of this article. They are the ones calling for war against Russia.
If the bombs start falling on the West, they are the guilty men and women who caused them to fall.
