As Wars Go, Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Is A Mere Toddler
As wars go, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a baby and as far as costs go, it’s been relatively cheap, so far.
But it is endless and devastating for the citizens of the Ukraine who can expect even more deaths and brutality, especially if U.S. support for Ukraine wanes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is certainly aware of the long history of war in his nation. Since 1099, Russia has survived a total of 1,313 years of often overlapping, conflicts. That includes the Russo-Turkish wars from 1568 to 1918; the Chechen–Russian conflict from 1785 to 2017; Russo-Persian Wars, from 1651 to 1828; Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars from 1368 to 1537; Russian conquest of Siberia, 1580 to 1747; Russo-Kazan Wars, from 1438 to 1552; and the Georgian–Seljuk wars, 1099 to 1203.
While relatively brief, so far, the war in Ukraine is a dinosaur compared with the shortest war in history, the British-Zanzibar War of 1896. It lasted 38 minutes, occurring in the archipelago of Zanzibar, off the coast of what is now Tanzania.
On Aug. 25, 1896, two days before the war started, the sultan of Zanzibar had died, and his cousin, Khalid bin Bargash, took over the throne, in violation of a treaty that had said all successors had to be approved by the British prior to their ascension to the throne.
The British considered the violation as a proclamation of war, and gave Khalid until 9 a.m. to surrender the throne. Khalid barricaded himself in his palace, the British called his bluff, and decimated the palace. When the dust settled by 9:45 a.m., more than 500 Zanzibaris were either killed or injured, and Khalid had fled from the palace to the German consulate.
The war in Ukraine reached its first anniversary last week but it is nowhere near the longest conflict in history. That ignominious honor goes to the Reconquista, which lasted 781 years and 1 month, from 711 to 1492. The Reconquista were military campaigns which Christian states waged from the 8th century until 1492 to retake the Iberian territory which they lost due to Muslim conquests.
The Anglo-French Wars continued from 1109 to 1815, for a grand total of 706 years, 5 months, 2 weeks and 3 days, before peace was declared. The wars were a series of conflicts between France and England stretching over a period from the middle ages to the early 190th Century over various reasons, from the English claim over Normandy to the Napoleonic wars.
The Roman–Persian Wars was an extended conflicts between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires, lasting from 54 BC to 628, amounting to a total of 681 years.
And there was the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars, fought from 680 to 1355, amounting to a whopping, 675 years of war. The conflicts between the Byzantines and Bulgarians began when the Bulgars settled in the Balkan peninsula in the 5th century, and intensified with the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire to the southwest after 680 AD.
In more recent times, the Kurdish battle for separatism in Iran started in 1918 and continues, 105 years later. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict was ignited with Israeli independence in 1948 and is still going strong, after 75 years of bloodshed.
And World War II lasted a measly six years and one day, from Sept. 1, 1939, and Hitler’s invasion of Poland, to Sept. 2, 1945, and the surrender of the Nazis. World War I continued for only four years, three months and two weeks, from July 28, 1914 to Nov. 11, 1918, the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month.
As far as the deadliest conflicts, the war in Ukraine is comparatively less murderous than the 10 deadliest wars in history. The Thirty Years War was fought among European powers between 1618 and 1648, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 4.5 million to 8 million soldiers and civilians.
But the bloodiest conflict was World War II. An estimated 70 million people died as a result of the war, including nearly 20 million military personnel and 40 million to 50 million civilians. The Soviet Union suffered nearly 27 million of the deaths.
A factor in favor of the American pacifism or more likely, its relative age, is that the U.S. has had only 101 wars, for 10th on the list of the 30 nations that have had the most wars. On top is Spain with more than 300 wars, France with more than 250, Hungary with 190 and the United Kingdom with 180. At the bottom of the ignominous list is Turkey, 24 wars; China,20; Israel, 15; and Syria, 12.
As far as cost, the U.S. has sent nearly $50 billion in aid and equipment to Ukraine’s military over the past year. That is a pittance compared with the $4.1 trillion the U.S. spent in World War II.
To understand the cost of prosecuting a modern day war, take these examples:
Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70/72 fighter jet: $64 million.
Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jet: up to $67.4 million.
Lockheed Martin F-35A fighter jet: $77.9 million.
Russian Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker E gither jet: $85 million.
As far as tanks, France’s AMX — 56 Leclerc tank cost almost $30 million; the German Leopard 2A6 Battle Tank, around $7 million.
Hopefully, the Russians will not overrun Ukraine because of the likes of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Matt Goetz, R-Fla., Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Rep. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and their band of crazies, all the other modern day isolationists and appeasers in the grand tradition of Neville Chamberlain.
And of course, don’t forget the great trump, the Putin-apologist.
Appeasement is a foreign policy of pacifying an aggrieved country through negotiation in order to prevent war. The prime example is Britain’s policy toward Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the 1930s. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sought to accommodate Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and took no action when Germany absorbed Austria in 1938. When Adolf Hitler prepared to annex ethnically German portions of Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain negotiated the notorious Munich Agreement, which permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia. This was followed by the Nazi invasion of Poland and the start of World War II.
The Republican demagogues hope the American public will just get weery of sending billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine and the demagogues may be right. An Associated Press poll shows that public support for aiding Ukraine militarily has declined from 60 percent last May to 48 percent today, and to 39 percent among Republicans.
“America is in a state of managed decline, and it will exacerbate if we continue to hemorrhage taxpayer dollars toward a foreign war,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz has authored a resolution calling for an end to aid for Ukraine. The resolution includes 10, far, far right co-sponsors, all Republicans.
Fortunately the majority in Congress, including Republicans, support continued funding to battle the Russian onslaught. Unfortunately for the west, the Russians upped the ante last week when Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.
DeSantis, et al, are you listening?
DeSantis came out with a few notable comments, notable for their stupidity.
“The fear of Russia going into NATO countries and all that and steamrolling, you know, that has not even come close to happening,” he said in an interview. Of course it hasn’t happened; because of the massive support from the U.S. and NATO.
DeSantis said that Russia has been shown to be a “third-rate military power.” This “third rate military power” has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, massive devastation and deaths of hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians. I shudder at what would happen in Ukraine and elsewhere if Russia was a first rate military power.
Hawley said the U.S. has given Ukraine a “blank check” and that the spigot had to be shut. The great conservative wordsmith, George Will, called Hawley a “human windsock,” a demagogue and the “Missouri Metternich.”
I had never heard of Metternich, but a bit of research showed my ignorance about one of the most influential, conservative statesman who had a significant impact on the European balance of power for three decades in the 1800s, eventually leading up to World War I.
Metternich tailored his conservative views to the mass of Europeans who yearned for security, quiet, and peace, and regarded liberals as repugnant. Can anyone spell Hawley.
Biden paid a surprise and dramatic visit to Ukraine this week to meet with the embattled nation’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Ever the clever wordsmith, Greene was incensed that Zelensky wore his patented olive green sweatshirt, cargo pants and hard boots as the leader of a nation at war.
“Zelenskyy can’t even wear a tie as he greets the President of the United States,” said Greene. “He gladly takes our money in sweat shirts and T-shirts, but Biden is dressed up. So insulting. America Last!!!”
Greene has been under the gun for her garish, fashion tastes as she wore a white, fur-trimmed coat to Biden’s state of the union address, prompting comparisons with Disney’s evil Cruella de Vil and equally vile, White Witch of Narnia.
Greene was all over Biden for traveling to Ukraine insted of visiting East Palestine, Ohio, the scene of a multi-train car accident, explosion and toxic spill. She also called for his impeachment and that the U.S. should be separated into two countries, red and predominantly Republican and blue and mostly Democratic, nations.
“Biden didn’t go to East Palestine, Ohio on President’s Day. He went to Ukraine, a NON-NATO nation, whose leader is an actor and is apparently now commanding our United States military to world war,” Greene tweeted.
And then there was the great madman, trump, who said he had a secret plan to end the war in Ukraine war in 24 hours while the U.S. builds an “impenetrable dome” to protect the U.S. from a nuclear attack.
“If I were president, the Russia/Ukraine war would never have happened, but even now, if president, I would be able to negotiate an end to this horrible and rapidly escalating war within 24 hours. Such a tragic waste of human life!!!” the clown king posted, unfortunately without divulging how he would end the war and build the “impenetrable dome.”