Rob Rogers for March 10, 2022

The difference today is an all out nuclear war. I don’t think Putin is above using nukes on the Ukraine.

Those world wars were horrible. Extremely bad. Took humanity decades to recover… and it isn’t entirely over yet (people who don’t believe there really was a holocaust, for instance). BUT. They were… nearly… non-nuclear. The next one won’t be non-nuclear. And it seems reasonably possible that it WILL be the very last (human) war. Ever. Because after that it’ll be up to the cockroaches, tardigrades, or with luck some clever mammal (raccoons maybe?) to have the next war.

Wrong.

Unfortunately, it’s not historically accurate, but the point is well taken.

The concept of allies is lost on Rodgers I see. Better comparison might have been Germany’s invasions prior to Poland.

♫♪ Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt

And we damn near believed what he said…♫♪

He said "I hate war! And so does Eleanor!

But we won’t be safe till ev’rybody’s dead! " ♫♪

https://youtu.be/HhbrYhL3OPk

I very much doubt that FDR would have actually said that. Looks like “fake news” from Rob Rogers, as expected.

Putin says we already have, because of the sanctions.

There were those who believed conspiracy theories about Roosevelt and hated him, just as there are those today who swim in the garbage of conspiracy theories and hatred.

Actually Roosevelt considered Nazi Germany an existential threat and knew the USA would be drawn into the European war. A large number of Americans did not agree and vigorously opposed his efforts to aid the British. After Pearl Harbor he was relieved when Hitler declared war on the USA. His coordination with Churchill placed higher priority on defeating Germany even while some Americans wanted to focus on Japan.

“Peace in our time.”

This is a pretty stupid argument. WWII ended with nuclear explosions over two Japanese cities. Fortunately, the notion of mutually assured destruction has prevailed among the nuclear powers following that war to prevent further, even more wide-spread use. Does Rogers expect that Putin would simply ignore his nukes and fight NATO with conventional forces? Talk about MAD.

This bickering is stupid. It is playing into Putin’s hands. Creating division between NATO allies. Shut up and work it out… and the result must be Ukraine gets the planes.

The domino “theory” rears its idiot head.

In the past ten years, Russia has been involved in eleven conflicts that increased Russian power in neighboring countries. We ignored it. Just as England did in WWII, we are talking to Putin and getting his assurances that the current power grab is all he wants and then he will stay home and be a good boy. He won’t. He wants to Make Russia Great Again. Until Biden was elected, he had an American president who thought he was the coolest kid on the playground, which gave him an easy path to do what he is doing. Biden is trying to prevent WWIII, since a person of questionable sanity is in charge of enough nuclear weapons to wipe us off the map. And, we have enough to do the same to them. The threat of mutually assured destruction would be enough to prevent their use if everyone involved were sane. The Russians would have known that was not the case with Trump, but he was in their pocket. Now, we are in WWWIII. The decision isn’t whether we want to start it or not, it’s been going on for a while now. The question is, do we want to allow Putin to take over the world, gathering strength as he goes, until we have no choice other than to fight him, or do we sit back and wait until he is invading Los Angles?

Harbor. Just sayin

Just admit, Putin has the free world by the short and curlys. Damned if we do damned if we don’t. Pull for the sanctions to do something.

Actually, it wasn’t FDR who wanted to stay away from the fight, it was the “America First” crowd (including Charles Lindbergh). Before Pearl Harbor, there was a lot of internal debate about it, and even some nifty Hollywood propaganda about European powers trying to dominate the world. See, e;g., “The Sea Hawk”, a parable starring Errol Flynn and rewriting English history to demonstrate that it was necessary to fight against Spain, a European power intent on conquering the world (at least according to that script). Also, some kickass music by Korngold.

If we (The United States) choose to “get involved” in the Russia-Ukraine mess at this stage, as opposed to when Russia first started to invade Ukraine several years ago, then our ONLY option is “Sanctions” which we must put in place and then allow them time to work – and yes, for the sanctions to have any chance of being effective, they must be strict enough that we feel the pain, as well.

The decision WAS a simple one – like getting a splinter in your foot. We’ve ignored the splinter and now infection is setting in! We can only hope that the body politic decides to “do something” before the development of gangrene in the limb.

Even more so today than in ’39. We live in the world, not separate from it.

FDR had to wait for the country to come along.

Go back a few years prior to Poland and you find “The Sudetenland is absolutely my last territorial demand in Europe.” (Signed, Mr. Trustworthy)

Reading these toons backwards in time I see that Rogers is married to this stupid theme.