The main thing about reading/studying history is to recognize patterns because history is made by humans and we prefers to act within known parameters -- each to our own. Major events, such as wars and natural disasters, reveals how we resort to our 'bags of tricks' to deal with these life altering events. Whatever comes out of this Russia-Ukraine war, Europe will have to face the harsh reality that NATO is institutionally obsolete. NATO members giving hardware to Ukraine while at the same time arguing between each other as to what hardware and when. A better vehicle for mutual defense would have had troops. Now, it is likely too late for sending troops to Ukraine because enough time as passed for NATO member states to be intimidated by an aggressor.
Am not saying this as a 'shoulda coulda woulda' criticism, even though it may sounds that way. The Soviet Union was not militarily defeated but deterred, and deterred for long enough time that its own rot killed it. That should have been the moment for Europe to create its own version of NATO. Russia was in political turmoil in many fronts, from its own leadership (Boris Yeltsin) to Chechnya, its military severely demoralized and weakened, leaving only its nuclear weapons the only branch worthwhile. Using a medical analogy, that should have been when the European body rallied against a weakened Russian virus. That virus became stronger because the body REFUSED to build its own antibodies and instead relied on external sources -- the US. Now, a European country is devastated a la WW II with no assurance that neighbors will not suffer the same fate. It is irrelevant if Ukraine is NATO or EU member and it is even more irrelevant to the Western Hemisphere and Asia. All the rest of the world saw is a country no different than that of an arm or leg, then an aggressive Russia using whatever specious reasoning it can find to invade that country, and it is even more pathetic that instead of taking natural resources, the rest of the world saw the aggressor stole material goods such as television and household appliances. The Russian Bear is gnawing at a European limb while the main body debate on what to do next. The problem here is that WW II is not 'ancient' history but the European brain swiftly forgot it.
www.telegraph.co.uk
