Yalta 80 Years Later

In case you don’t recognize the original of the image above, it’s Yalta, in February 1945. Exactly 80 years ago. It should have been the final act of European colonialism, with the victors in WWII dividing up the world the way they wanted it without consulting the countries affected.

For the Record:

They gave Israel to the Jews without consulting the Palestinians. When the Palestinians objected, they put them into refugee camps, trying to force the other Arab nations to take in the refugees. Which they didn’t, preferring to use them as leverage against the Israelis. Sound familiar?

They divided up Germany into a two-part state, one side Russia-friendly, the other side part of NATO.

They gave all of Eastern Europe to Russia, creating the Iron Curtain, basically a huge, long wall to stem the flow of people from one country to the next.

They gave Suez to Britain and France without consulting Egypt, creating the Suez Crisis and laying the groundwork for future Arab-Israeli conflicts.

(Note: I’m taking a historical liberty, here. Yalta was about the division of Europe.  In a week of talking, you better believe the topic of the Middle East came up. Russia left it to Britain and the US to make those decisions, thus extending the Cold War into that area.)

The Bottom Line

History is repeating itself.

If you can’t see the parallels to Trump and Putin’s plans, I’m not going to bother explaining them to you.

 If, on the other hand, you’re saying, “How can anyone be so stupid as to believe that idiocy will work when it didn’t before?” I’m going to remind you; they’re conservatives. What they did before worked fine for them, because it kept them in power, and kept the money flowing into their bank accounts.

The only shred of silver lining is that the Israelis and Hamas have scuttled into some sort of negotiations, for fear that Trump is going to meddle in their problems.