History rhymes.
In 1938, at a meeting in Munich, various leaders of European countries met to try to appease Nazi Germany, to keep them from invading more countries and grabbing more territory. Missing from the meeting was representatives of Czechoslovakia, the country that got diced up, with land being given to Germany. The plan did not work, and we got World War II.
It’s 2025. The United States has called for a security summit in Munich, reportedly to end the Russian war in Ukraine. Guess who won’t be at the table? Ukraine. Trump’s emissaries will likely decide that Ukraine should give up some of its territory to appease Putin/Russia. Whatever makes Trump think this is a good idea.
Dr. Timothy Snyder goes into detail as to why history teaches that this is a bad idea. I encourage you to read his analysis.
https://snyder.substack.com/p/appeasement-at-munich
@revjss Trump has been pretty clear about why he thinks this is a good idea: he believes it's the only way to end the war.
Anyone with a better idea at this point should bring it forward.
With the goal of ending the war, this seems like one of those occasions where it's the very worst idea except for all the others.
@revjss so first of all, the essay doesn't seem to notice that Ukraine did, in fact, resist. That happened. You can check that off the to-do list.
The situation is already different because that happened.
But more to my point, the essay doesn't propose a better choice. It says we shouldn't go this direction because of a not-quite-complete analogy with the past (again, overlooking that Ukraine did in fact resist) and that's fine, even Trump is clear that this isn't a great option. It's just that, what's the better option?
There is no world where Russia is simply going to shrug its shoulders and walk away. Russia is not going to cooperate in that best of outcomes. We do not have the choice of deciding for Russia that Russia is going to lay down arms.
So with that perfect choice off the table, what's the next best? That's what we're working with here.
@volkris - Read Dr. Snyder's essay and you might change your mind. Maybe.