An era of appeasement often leads to an era of war.
We are now in an era of appeasement.
From the ‘escalation management’ of the Biden Administration that has hamstrung Ukraine’s effort to defeat Russia’s illegal invasion, to the disturbingly Russia-sympathetic incoming Trump Administration, and the refusal of many free nations – Canada included – to adequately invest in their national defence, a desire to appease authoritarian states has given the Authoritarian Axis the initiative.
And this cannot just be blamed on politicians.
Indeed, much of the Western public has no appetite for anything to do with military conflict. Many people don’t want to spend on the military. Many people get angry when they see aid being given to countries like Ukraine. Many are so cynical that they no longer feel the defence of liberal democracy is worth it. Many are simply tired of one crisis after another and want everything to settle down.
While some of this is organic, we can’t ignore the fact that Russia and China have been drowning our Citizens in propaganda for years, propaganda designed to ensure we remain angry, divided, and internally focused at a time when the Authoritarian Axis is building up for an even larger war. One of the most sinister ways this has influenced our discourse is that anyone who advocates for a defensive buildup in the West is denounced as a ‘warmonger’ – quite a ‘convenient’ formulation for China and Russia, both of whom want to ensure we don’t prepare for war.
Thus, appeasement is a political winner, because people want peace and appeasement sounds like a guarantee of peace.
It’s also easy to explain. It’s a much easier argument – from a political perspective – to say that we need to ‘end the wars’ than it is to explain why we need to spend tens of billions of dollars on a large-scale military buildup to dissuade aggression from hostile foreign powers.
But of course, something being easy to explain and politically popular doesn’t make it true.
No matter how many people say they want it, appeasement is wrong.
And far from bringing peace, appeasement makes a larger war much more likely.
We were supposed to have learned this lesson in the 20th Century.
Britain and France appeased Nazi Germany when they entered the Rhineland.
Britain and France appeased Nazi Germany when they began an illegal military build-up.
Britain and France appeased Nazi Germany when they annexed Austria.
Britain and France appeased Nazi Germany when they handed over the Sudetenland (a disturbing parallel to the kind of ‘peace deal’ some want to impose on Ukraine).
Britain and France appeased Nazi Germany when they overlooked the full-blown occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Britain and France even appeased Nazi Germany after the invasion of Poland. While they finally woke up enough to declare war on Nazi Germany, they still sat back and watched as Germany dismantled Poland, and only intervened directly at scale once Western Europe was invaded.
By then of course, it was too late.
Germany could have been crushed in 1936.
Germany could have been crushed in 1937.
Germany probably could have been crushed in 1938.
But by 1939, Germany had made enough progress in its military build-up to become a formidable enemy.
By avoiding war at all costs, the Allies only delayed war.
And by delaying the war, the Allies ensured Germany would be far more powerful when the conflict began.
France – after doing everything to avoid war – ended up getting completely conquered.
And the ultimate cost of defeating Nazi Germany – which could have been measured in the tens or hundreds of thousands in 1936, and 1937 – instead ran into the tens of millions and resulted in economic destruction at an unimaginable scale.
Appeasement not only failed, but it directly contributed to the most horrific conflict humanity has ever seen.
We are making the same mistake again.
If Russia conquers and incorporates Ukraine, it will be vastly more powerful and more dangerous than it is at the present moment.
Had the world surged military supplies to Ukraine in 2022, Ukraine could very well have defeated Russia outright.
Instead, the world dithered and delayed, and we still haven’t ramped up our domestic production despite all the time Ukraine has bought us.
Still, aiding Ukraine now against Russia is far wiser than waiting for Russia to be even more powerful down the road.
Remember this:
If Russia is determined to reclaim the Soviet Empire, then a war between Russia and NATO is inevitable unless Ukraine survives.
We don’t get a direct vote in Russian decision-making.
The only way we can influence Russia’s decision is by helping Ukraine now.
If Ukraine can hold off Russia, a future war may never arrive, because Russia has to overcome Ukraine before achieving its further ambitions of conquest.
If Russia never defeats Ukraine, those future attempts at conquest won’t happen.
It would be akin to having defeated Nazi Germany in 1939 by bogging them down in Poland or refusing to cede the Sudetenland in 1938 and calling Germany’s bluff.
If Germany had been stopped in 1939 or 1938, or had they been bogged down enough in Poland to buy time for France and the United Kingdom to fully rearm, tens of millions of lives could have been saved.
But then – as now – appeasement won out until it was too late.
Let’s not make the same mistake again.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
