My grandfather landed at Normandy 80 years ago today. He was 23 at the time.
When I was in school (late 1980s), the teacher gave us an assignment to interview a WWII veteran. I went to my grandfather’s house to ask him about it.
The Greatest Generation had survived the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and WWII. They had seen incredible hardship. Yet, they never talked about it. My grandfather was very much of that stoic mindset.
That day, though, he decided to open up.
He described wading from the boat while the Germans poured absolute hellfire down on them from all directions. He told me he had never seen carnage like that. He described it as a “slaughterhouse.”
He said, “I knew I was going to die that day, so I sat on top of a Donald Duck [amphibious tank] and we rode straight up the hill into machine gun fire. I was very surprised when I survived.”
I asked how he felt about saving the world.
He said, very simply, “That’s hindsight. At the time, we didn’t know how the war would end, or if it would ever end. [D-Day] was self-preservation; we were trying to stop Hitler in Europe before he came across the ocean. We had a job to do, so we did it.”
I’ve been mulling this lately, given the situation in Ukraine. Once again, autocracy is fashionable and Europe is staring down a gun barrel. We are distracted with domestic issues and we’re pretending the situation overseas doesn’t concern us - just like we were in 1940.
But it does concern us. We may not think we’re at war with the powerful totalitarian regimes of the world, like Russia, Iran, and China, but THEY believe they’re at war with US.
They are using a new strategy, unimaginable in previous generations, called “hybrid warfare.” Hybrid warfare is a combination of cyberwarfare, terrorism, information warfare, political warfare, and physical warfare. The idea is to cause constant chaos, even far from the battlefield, to destroy an enemy’s cohesion and to wear down its ability and will to fight.
Isn’t that what’s happening? Russia and China are buying our politicians and influencers. Daily, they are attacking our computer systems, undersea cables, energy supplies, manufacturing abilities, and shipping lanes. They are destabilizing places like Venezuela, the Middle East, and Africa. They are loading our news networks and social media sites with disinformation, propaganda, and conspiracy theories to cause political chaos and intentionally break down trust in Western societies. They want us spread thin, confused, exhausted, and not knowing whom to trust. The autocratic regimes cannot beat us on the physical battlefield - YET - but kinetic war becomes unnecessary if their enemies collapse internally.
WWIII has already started. We’re in it now.
Poor Ukraine just happens to be the crossroads of this new global conflict, the place where old-fashioned combat overlaps with these newer warfare methods. Many of us want to ignore the plight of the Ukrainians. We think Putin will stop when he gets what he wants in Ukraine. But we’re confusing what we want with what Putin wants. We may want peace, or to not be bothered, but Putin wants conquest. Putin has stated his goal is to rebuild the Russian Empire. He’s telling us his ambitions, so we’d be fools not to listen.
Beyond Ukraine, Putin wants Moldova. He’s already planning for that; Russia has established a large colony in the eastern part of that country. Via political interference, Putin has installed governments sympathetic to him in Hungary and Austria. Looking at a map, one could imagine Putin’s army marching through those four countries right into the heart of central Europe. While we were sleeping, Putin has spent his 25 years in power setting his chess board up.
We need to start dealing with this menace head-on by not letting the first country in that chain fall. That means Putin’s advance must be stopped in Ukraine. Should he taste victory there, Putin will continue pushing West. He will use the victory as a propaganda trophy to further wear down Western morale and drive a wedge between NATO countries.
We don’t know how this war will end, or if it ever will. But we have a job to do - and an opportunity to prevent this situation from getting worse.
Let’s give Ukraine everything she needs to win.
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