The Proper Way to Enter World War III
I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Ezekiel 38:4 (NIV)
I was watching the news the last couple of days and there is a lot of talk about how we are to support the effort to keep the Russian Federation from running roughshod over Ukraine any further, and perhaps going through the rest of western Europe. This was a fear that led to the United States’ long term presence there after World War II.
Right now, there is no uniform opinion in America that would lead one to conclude we should support Ukraine any more than we already have. Russia, with the People’s Republic of China as their strongest ally, is a formidable enemy. Everyone has reason to be nervous right now. China has been rattling their sabers at our warplanes in the South China Sea around Taiwan and the Philippines for months. In the past several days one of their fighters came within a few hundred feet of one of ours with a CNN crew onboard.
In the World Wars of the 20th Century, both Presidents Woodrow Wilson (WWI) and Franklin Roosevelt (WWII) kept us officially neutral, even after we had lost lives—including civilians—in both conflicts.
Why does this matter?
Just looking at World War II, polling played a significant role in our build-up to involvement in Europe. We seemed fairly satisfied to let things play out, even if it meant the Nazis and Hitler took over everything. By then, we knew that Jewish people were being persecuted and rounded up in the concentration camps.
The Gallup Poll asked similar questions at critical points prior to our entry into the war to gauge the American response, and how the politicians should govern themselves—as they so often do—based on polling data.
These were several questions:
- September 1, 1939 – Hitler invades Poland (WWII begins); “If it looks within the next few months as if England and France might be defeated, should the U.S. declare war on Germany and send troops abroad? (Response: Yes-42%; No or No Opinion-58%)
- October 6, 1939 – Poland conquered—Hitler vows millions will die if Britain & France refuse to agree to his demands; “If it appears that Britain and France will be defeated, should the U.S. declare war on Germany and send our army and navy to Europe to fight? (Response: Yes-29%; No-71%)
- May 10, 1940 – Germany invades Netherlands, Belgium, and France; “Do you think the U.S. should declare war on Germany and send our army and navy abroad to fight? (Response: Yes-7%; No-93%)
- June 22, 1940 – France falls to Germany—Great Britain is sole enemy combatant in Europe; “Which of these 2 things is more important for the US to try to do—keep out of the war or help England win, even at risk of getting into the war? (Response: Help-35%; Keep Out or No Opinion-65%)
- September 16, 1940 – Congress authorizes military draft of 900,000 (1st peacetime draft in US History); “Which of these 2 things is more important for the US to try to do—to keep out of the war or help England win? (Response: Help-52%; Keep Out-48%)
From here on the polling data trended upward toward getting involved and reached its peak after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. On that day, Gallup’s response was 91% in favor of jumping into the war and 9% keeping out.
This is important because less than four years later, the United States emerged as the vanguard of everything mighty in the world we have been left with for the last 78 years, since World War II ended. Anywhere in the world in which conflict emerge, America is either called upon for assistance, vilified as the cause, or seen as the arbiter of the solution to whatever that problem is to some degree.
The situation in Ukraine is not history repeating itself, but our responses to this situation over the past year have striking similarities to how we have responded to things in the past. When Roosevelt was elected to his third term as President in 1940, he authorized the Lend-Lease Act to Great Britain who, by then, was in desperate need of help as the rest of Europe had already fallen to the Nazis.
Now, we have had President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine come to us and other NATO Allies seeking whatever assistance he can get to forestall what was seen as inevitable defeat by Russia a year ago. Russia has taken it in the teeth by an unexpectedly hard-fighting Ukraine army, and is now seeking help from their closest ally, and our strongest adversary, both commercially and militarily—the People’s Republic of China.
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made a statement that appeared to demand a major and ongoing commitment to Ukrainian victory over Russia, regardless of how long it took. He called it a “direct investment for the US against Putin’s war machine.” This in spite of statements from other Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House demanding an audit of funds and how they are used there.
Many Republicans, Greene included, seem to side with Russia and their desire to end Ukrainian corruption. As if criminal corruption via billionaire oligarchs in Russia didn’t exist. President Biden is calculating another run in 2024, as well and he says he won’t send war planes to Ukraine, either.
Time will tell, but this sure seems to have all the earmarks of another world-wide conflict with American people going back to the battlefield, as they always do. I sure hope we have the quality and quantity of leaders we had back then. Judging by the statements coming out of Washington, D.C. these days, I doubt it.
Watch the polling data.
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