I was sitting in the Social Science building during a brief break from my Symbolic Logic class. The teacher had left the room to go get a drink, and I was reading BBC news on my lap top. Specifically, I was reading stories about the recent Russian invasion of Georgia. I expressed deep concern over these events to the classmate behind me.
“Eh,” he shrugged, “It’s their problem. Let Russia and Georgia deal with it. It’s no concern of ours.”
I was speechless.
On September 30th, 1938, Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich after talks with Hitler and declared “Peace for our time.” This declaration was the beginning of a policy of appeasement that would allow Hitler and his war machine to gear for massive invasion of Europe. In the end, Germany invaded Poland under the pretense that Poland had attacked them. Chamberlain wanted to chide Germany, but not go to war. Only the pressures of the British Parliament led the British into war against the Reich.
Meanwhile the U.S. stood by, we continued to isolate ourselves and ignore the actions of the Axis of imperialist nations. We just shrugged are shoulders and said, to effect, “Eh, it’s their problem, let them deal with it.” We would sit by and nurse our wounds and grow rich of selling weapons to the Allies. Then Pearl Harbor happened.
The hunger of imperialists is like the grave, it is never filled.
Fast forward to the present. Russia has invaded Georgia with sketchy claims of provocation, and is now threatening an attack on Poland (possibly a nuclear one) because of an American missile interceptor base that is going to be built there. Furthermore, on September 22nd, Russian Warships set sail for US-hostile Venezuela, for joint exercises. (BBC News, America)
Finally, a recent BBC news article I read reveals that Dmitri Medvedev has claimed “‘[w]e plan to start serial production of warships, primarily nuclear-powered submarines carrying cruise missiles and multifunctional submarines’”(BBC News, Europe). In light of their stated “opposition to US global dominance”(Ibid).
It is certainly not yet time for a costly war, but we also cannot afford to ignore what Russia is doing. I also fully admit that America has been far from perfect in this arena. There’s no easy answer, and I don’t envy the World’s leaders right now, but this is certainly not just Russia and Georgia’s problem. I’m glad it’s not being treated as such. One thing is for sure, those of us who pray should be praying hard about this one.
Bibliography
Russia to Build Up Nuclear Systems: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7638356.stm
Russian Navy Sales to Venezuela: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7628899.stm
Russia and Venezuela Boost Ties: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7636989.stm
Poland Threatened: http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/08/15/1750189-russia-poland-risks-attack-because-of-us-missiles
Photo taken from Wikipedia article on Neville Chamberlain <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_chamberlain>
