Sanctions against Russia and its oligarchs may be painful to all Russians, and to Putin’s friends and advisors in particular, won’t work. Putin has a huge ego and has committed to annexing Ukraine and nothing will stop him as long as his military follow his orders.

            Following orders was the key to the defense in the crimes committed by Japanese and Germans after World War II and the Balkan Wars. Today’s Russian Generals are following Putin’s orders in destroying the Ukraine and committing war crimes. If our Joint Chief of Staff told the Russian Chief of staff that he was committing war crimes and should pull his tropes out as quickly as possible or be tried in absentia at The Hague he might overthrow Putin. Other generals, colonels, majors, and captains should be given the message also. I don’t think they want to fight this war or it would have been over days ago.

            Put this message out on as many places as possible. Perhaps that fear of prison will cause a military uprising to oust Putin. His lack of sanity would give them cause.

            Vladimir Putin was trained in sowing divisive seeds to create dissension among the USSRs enemies. When Putin was trained by the KGB, the world did not have internet. Being a sharp devious person, Putin has set up a large cyber war group to extort money from businesses, destroy a nation’s infrastructure, and create discord among Russia’s enemies.

            Being a cold warrior, Putin wants to reunite the countries that were formerly part of the USSR with many being in NATO and now against him. Most of the others are in the European Union’s trade association.

            Taking a play out of Adolph Hitler’s playbook, Putin has been taking pieces of the Ukraine and other countries with only minor objections from the rest of the world. He has invaded the Crimea and annexed it into Russia and built a massive bridge over the strait to physically connect Crimea to Russia. Will the Ukraine be Putin’s Czechoslovakia or will it be Poland and start a real war?

            Russians are very conscious of their history even if they overlook some of the disagreeable periods. However, they are very aware of the Slavic people moving east in the fifth century to what is now the Ukraine and the Viking traders setting in the ninth century. The new country was based on two “cities” – Kiev and Novograd. Kiev is now the capital of the Ukraine and the people are seventy-seven percent Ethnic Russian and Russian Orthodox. That is the reason for the Donbas Region’s rebellion and the support of Putin.

            Few Americans today have heard of or know the situation concerning Sudetenland. It was a part of Czechoslovakia in 1938 when Fuehrer Adolph Hitler decided its ethnic German population should be part of the Fatherland. To avoid war the European countries let him have it over the Czech protests. Britain’s Prime Minister Arthur Neville Chamberlain called the agreement “Peace in Our Time.” The treaty stated Hitler wouldn’t try to annex any more. In November he took another chunk and in March of 1939 he took the rest and put in a government loyal to him.

            Hitler’s military wasn’t half as large as the countries around him but because they kept letting him have his way, he did not believe their threat of war if he invaded Poland. World War II was started. Instead of rushing troops to the East and taking Berlin with ease since most of his army was in Poland, they stayed and waited for him to attack.

            The question is obvious. Is the Sudetenland like the Eastern part of the Ukraine? Will Russian leader Vladimir Putin stop with a piece or will he try to take the rest? He took the Crimea and some sanctions were imposed. But he has built a bridge to connect it to Russia. Many NATO countries have Russian enclaves which are restless. Will he try to do the same thing?

            Is the Ukraine a Déjà Vu of 1938 and 1939’s precursor of war? Putin is following Hitler’s playbook on his rise to power and taking control of Russia. How can he be stopped – short of World War III?