Those who will not study history….

As I watch Europe’s feeble political reactions to President Putin's current aggressions, I am reminded of George Santayana’s oft quoted but seldom heeded saying” Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (Edmund Burke said much the same thing: “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”.)

Apparently enough time has passed since the start of World War II that Europeans, and especially European politicians, have forgotten how a weak and timid reaction to Hitler’s 1938 invasion of Austria and the subsequent betrayal by the Europeans of Czechoslovakia at the 1939 Munich Conference led to the horrors of World War II.

Considering that the Ukraine is in Europe’s back yard, not America’s, it amazes me that we seem to be the ones who have to push for a stiffer reaction to Russian aggression.