Operation Barbarossa and its Lessons for Today

Seventy-six years ago, June 22, 1941, Hitler launched "Operation Barbarossa," the massive invasion of the Soviet Union. It involved some 4.5 million Axis troops, over three million of them German, and within six months had placed the Nazis on the outskirts of Moscow, and, it seemed, on the verge of a total victory over Stalin's USSR. In the end, of course, it didn't turn out that way. I will not go into a military history of Barbarossa and the disaster into which it ultimately became for the Axis powers; some of the readers of this blog probably could write volumes about WWII. No, that's not the purpose of this little piece.

I began thinking about Barbarossa as I watched a couple of clips of lefty Democrats going on and on about Trump-Russia "collusion." Interesting that the American left now have sudden concerns about not just our national security, but with Russian "influence." They fret and rage that Putin colluded with Trump to thwart Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House. They fret and rage, of course, despite the lack of any evidence that such "collusion" took place.

It is worth recalling that in days not really so long ago, there was collusion between the left and the Moscow. In fact, the collusion was so close that the left was willing to accept the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact without skipping a beat. Let us not forget that prior to the signing in August 1939 of that "Non-Aggression" accord between Moscow and Berlin, the left in Europe and America was vehemently anti-Nazi--remember the Spanish Civil War. Once, however, word came out that Hitler and Stalin had reached an understanding, the left switched to opposing war against the Nazis. We should note, for example, that the Communists in France, responding to orders from Moscow, gave up non-Communist members of the French resistance to the Nazi occupiers and a slow, painful death. Communists in America and Europe opposed helping the evil capitalist imperialists in London as Churchill's Britain waged its desperate and lonely war against the Nazis. All that changed in an instant when the Nazi alliance invaded the USSR. Suddenly, "We have always been at war with Eastasia Hitler" was the slogan and the left insisted we forget about the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact, the invasion of Finland, the Nazi-Soviet partition of Poland, etc. Through its well-placed web of agents and fellow-travelers in the mass media, academia, and, of course, the government bureaucracy (see Senator McCarthy) suddenly the message was one of concern for national security and of the imperative need to defeat Hitler--and save the USSR.

They are at it, again.

Bernie Sanders, who honeymooned in the USSR, and his band of followers, who have never had a kind word to say about American national security, are up-in-arms about Russian "interference" in our elections. Bernie, of course, is not alone. Democrats and other assorted lefties, such as Hillary Clinton who with her husband engaged in, shall we say, some highly profitable "collusion" with Moscow, and even tried to "reset" relations with Russians, have formed a chorus demanding an "explanation" of Trump's alleged collusion with Russia, and even put out demands for Trump's impeachment. It would seem that Communist Russia, aka the USSR, was something for us to  co-exist with while the much weaker Russia of Putin is something for us to fear. We hear that Russia is taking over!

"We have always been at war with Eastasia Russia."