You are citing the actions of two autocratic expansionist regimes you numb skull. Jfc, you all prove to each other how stupid you are collectively. It really is something to behold.
In a backhanded sort of way…you just supported their point.
You’re correct, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were autocratic expansionist (technically, Japan was more of a military dictatorship, but it was still authoritarian).
Most of the German military leadership knew the war was lost once the D-day landings were successful. Any holdouts knew when the Christmas offensive (the Bulge) failed. Hitler and his inner circle kept fighting, throwing boys and old men onto the front lines and allowing the destruction of most of the country just to save the shame of surrender…and because they were insane.
Japan’s leadership wasn’t outright insane, but they also kept fighting in the name of honor. They also knew that they were losing, with little chance of turning things around, by mid 1944. But they kept going. They actively pushed their citizens to commit suicide rather than be captured, and promised glory in the afterlife to soldiers who would do the same. They intentionally changed their tactics in the last year to
not try to prevent Allied landings, but to slaughter so many of us that we’d stop fighting. They told their forces that there was no retreat, no surrender, and no support - they were to fight to the last man. Their explicit strategy was to give up their men in an effort to kill more of ours.
These autocracies don’t operate or think the same way we do. They do not value the lives of our people or theirs. They act only to perpetuate and protect themselves, and will pursue ridiculous and crazy strategies to that end. Basically, if you want to defeat them, you have to completely destroy them.
Russia is a similar autocracy. It’s driven by ego and the perception of power. The only way they’re going to give anything up is if it appears to be on their terms, or they get something better. As this applies to Ukraine, it means that either Putin is going to have to be paid to vacate Ukraine, he’s going to have to be forcibly removed, or he’s going to be allowed to keep it.
Ukraine can’t push him out, and the EU and US have not showed any willingness to support that. I don’t think anyone is in favor of sending US troops to recover the Crimea. So, we’re left with buying him out or letting him keep it. Both of those are appeasement, and may embolden him to do it again. That’s where the guardrails need to be - something needs to be in place to make it worse for him if he pulls the same shit.
Zelensky
can’t support appeasement. He can’t sanction giving away his territory. Also really can’t support paying Putin off and buying back his own territory. Politically/socially, his only play is to talk tough and say Putin needs to be forced out, even if he knows that’s not going to happen. Down the road, he can grudgingly accept an “unfair” agreement for the sake of ending the fighting and “securing his country’s future,” but publicly he’ll only accept because the EU and Americans wouldn’t give them the necessary support. Hopefully, this situation will also involve giving Ukraine the Russian assets that have been seized, so effectively Putin would be “buying” the seized land.
Anyway…while I hate the idea of appeasement, when dealing with regimes like this if you don’t have the ability or will to take them head-on, you probably don’t have options. You can make it work economically costly, and at some point you have to draw a line in the sand…but you might have to let them walk right up to that line.
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