When Will They Ever Learn?

     As Russian president Vladimir Putin signed an agreement officially recognizing Crimea as part of the Russian empire, Leftists around the world, including in the United States, celebrated Putin's statement that he does not want to divide Ukraine. A statement made moot by his actions to absorb Crimea into Russia. Only those on the Left could experience such comfort and solace from the words of a communist. Actually, in order to keep his word about not dividing Ukraine, Putin must absorb the rest of the country.
     In the 1960s there was a song called Where Have All The Flowers Gone, which communists like Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Joan Baez use to sing. Throughout the song the line "when will they ever learn," was repeated at the end of each verse. Of course, the song criticized the supposed blindness of those who saw the necessity of war. It is ironic that the singers' ideology has been proven in the ensuing years to be the most blind, and the cause of much suffering around the world.
     The most frightening thing in the world today is not Putin, Kim Jong-un, or even Islamic terrorists, but that the people charged with fighting such tyranny were all raised on the communist pap of songs like Flowers. After decades of suckling on a steady diet of their own poisonous regurgitation, those who control the reins of government have abdicated their duty to reason and common sense in favor of a twisted Utopia where no harm comes to those who provide no resistance to tyranny.
     During President Carter's ill advised negotiations with the Soviets about nuclear arms reductions (better known as SALT), my ninth grade math teacher, Brother Rogers, told us that communists could not be trusted. He said they could not be trusted because they defined terms differently than the West. After almost forty years, the Left still believes they can trust communists and take them at their word. Brother Rogers knew what Ronald Reagan would say a few years later, "Trust, but verify."
     Now President Capitulation and his cohorts in the "international community" have quietly ceded Crimea to Vladimir Putin. Something those familiar with the limp-wristed foreign policy of Barack Obama said would happen from the onset of this crisis. Once Crimea has become firmly ensconced in the Russian family, Vladimir will set his sights on the next chunk of real estate he wishes to add to the empire. And just like with Crimea, there will be a lot of bluster and toothless sanctions from the "international community." In the end, Mr. Putin will achieve his goals because his opposition is so committed to "peace at all costs," that fulfillment of those costs will be drawn on the account of  fidelity to the principles of liberty, freedom, and common decency.