"Peace for our time"
Sep 17 2023
About 85 years ago, on Sep 30th 1938, Neville Chamberlain came back to the UK from negotiations with Hitler on the Czechoslovakian problem, and uttered the famous words: “Peace for our time”.
As we all know, it did not quite turn out that way. Appeasement did not work, it only showed that brute force works.
The war in Ukraine has now been going on for 18 months, and it looks like the war will not end anytime soon. Some people in the West are urging Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, and are talking about ceding territory in exchange for peace.
Appeasement did not work in 1938, what is so different this time? Maybe people do not know history, or are in denial, or are just thinking about short term political gains and the next election. I do not know.
What I do know, is that this is not the time to negotiate a half-hearted peace deal. Russia will not stop at Ukraine if it can hold on to some gains achieved by brute force. The question, after a compromise peace deal, will not be how to make that agreement work; it will be “who’s next”.
Russia can not win this war. Europe and the world can not afford that. We should give Ukraine what it needs to fight and win this war, and we should give it now.
Politicians talking about negotiations with Russia would be wise to remember that when facing brute force, appeasement does not work.
And, if they do not want to be remembered for another “peace for our time” declaration, for being ‘the Neville Chamberlain of the 21st century’, they should get their act together, and make sure that Ukraine has the weapons to win this war, and the security guarantees to live in peace afterwards.
The Observer view on the Biden-Zelenskiy talks: now is no time to reduce support for Ukraine
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Sep 18 2023 David Miliband in The Guardian
Ukraine needs help on all fronts: military, civilian and humanitarian. Our will cannot waver
