World Wars I, II, and III

World War I started for stupid reasons.  Interlocking alliances meant that when Austria gave Serbia an ultimatum, Russia then backed Serbia, Germany backed Austria, France backed Russia, and eventually the whole world was at war.  

World War II started because a number of strongmen in Germany, Italy, and Japan realized the democracies that opposed them had little stomach to act.  Those democracies–France, Britain, the U.S.–having learned the wrong lessons from World War I, decided to placate the dictatorships and compromise, hoping that the efforts of Japan to seize China, Italy to seize African territories, and Germany to expand wouldn’t affect them.  When the democracies did finally act, it was too late to avoid what became World War II.  Even then the U.S. only entered the war when it was attacked.

Are we now on the brink of World War III?  We have the alliance system of World War I, we have dictators and strongmen in China, Iran, and Russia.  We have an insane government in North Korea that possesses nuclear weapons and at least some delivery capability.  We again have people in the U.S. who don’t see any need to defend democracy.  Some of them, like Fox News commentators or Trump, are cheering on the dictator Putin. 

What to do?  My own view, as someone born during World War II, is that we should at least be the “arsenal of democracy,” giving Ukraine whatever weapons it needs.  If Putin threatens nuclear weaponry, then the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine should be sufficient to dissuade him.  

We live in dangerous times, but they will become even more dangerous if Putin is not stopped.  Japan should have been stopped when it invaded Manchuria.  Italy should have been stopped when it invaded Ethiopia.  Germany should have been stopped when it threatened Czechoslovakia.  Perhaps we could have avoided World War II.  If Putin is stopped, perhaps we can avoid World War III.  Let’s hope so.