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Guernica All Over Again
Townhall.com ^ | March 27, 2015 | Paul Greenberg

Posted on 03/27/2015 2:35:18 PM PDT by Kaslin

It was one of the most searing paintings of the modernist era: Pablo Picasso's scream of a masterpiece inspired by the fascist bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War, a horror that would prove but a prelude to the Second World War that began a couple of years later.

The same evil empires that conspired to crush republican Spain in the 1930s -- Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia -- would unite again to invade Poland at the end of that decade, and set off worldwide calamity.

Spain was only an early victim. While the West continued to dither, refusing to intervene on behalf of the Spanish republic, both Nazi Germany and fascist Italy dispatched proxy legions to fight in Spain -- just as Vladimir Putin now sends his kontraktniki, his not very well disguised Russian invaders to seize more and more of Ukraine while the West only wrings its hands.

The amount of Nazi-supplied armaments shipped to Francisco Franco's fascist legions during the 1930s was impressive, not to mention all the German troops dispatched to fight in Spain. According to one tally:

"From 1936 to the defeat of the Republic three years later, Nazi Germany spent an estimated $215 million -- $3.6 billion in today's money -- to provide the Nationalists with 600 planes and 200 tanks and to pay the salaries of an estimated 16,000 German 'volunteers' of the Condor Legion. Encouraged by Germany, Mussolini sent the Nationalists 660 planes, 150 tanks, 800 artillery pieces, 10,000 machine guns and 240,000 rifles. In addition to providing arms, Germany trained 56,000 Nationalist infantry, gunners and pilots. The Luftwaffe pilots secured Nationalist dominance in the air, strafing Republican troops and bombing Madrid with impunity, while the Italian Navy controlled the Mediterranean and bombarded Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona."

For more details, see Leon Aron's piece in the March 2 Weekly Standard ("Spain 1936-39; Ukraine, 2014-? The perversity of not arming victims.")

Meanwhile, Moscow was doing its nefarious part to undermine the Spanish republic by dispatching Communist forces more intent on crushing Trotskyite dissenters than on fighting the Germans or their Spanish allies. That was the trap real volunteers fighting for the republic -- like George Orwell -- were caught in. He was lucky to get out of Spain with his life.

As for Western governments in the '30s, they remained neutral on the side of the aggressors. When civil war broke out in Spain, the British declared "a strict and impartial attitude of non-intervention ... essential if the unhappy events in Spain are to be prevented from having serious repercussions elsewhere." Washington followed suit, passing a series of Non-Intervention Acts that hindered only the republican side, while leaving its enemies free to import arms and welcome "volunteers."

Sound familiar? To quote Aron, a long-time student of communist tactics, "while democracies usually seek peace, their opponents are always after victory. This is useful to recall in light of the arguments by the opponents of arming Ukraine that doing so would 'pour gasoline on the fire" and 'antagonize' Vladimir Putin into 'widening the war.' If only it were that easy!"

"Where and when," Dr. Aron wonders, "has 'not angering' dictators bound on conquering or destabilizing their neighbors ever worked? Where and when have such aggressors been dissuaded from proceeding according to their own plans and timetables, shaped by ideology, cold geostrategic calculus, and opportunity? Name one dictator whose aggression has been prevented or even slowed down by noninterference. Was Mussolini? Was Saddam Hussein? Did 'not angering' Hitler by not confronting him after Germany began to arm itself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles make him scale down his ambition? Did inaction help after Hitler violated another article of the Versailles treaty by moving troops into the Rhineland in 1936? Did ceding Czechoslovakia appease him?"

And so the West proceeds down this all-too-familiar road to the next catastrophe. But what is the alternative -- war with Russia? That is the familiar false choice -- either oppose aggression or declare war on the aggressor.

Professor Aron proposes a third and better way to deal with Russia's thug-in-chief: Arm the Ukrainians. But would "sending defensive weapons to Kiev force Putin to scale down his designs? Not right away. Putin has bragged of being able take Kiev in two weeks, which is probably not far from the truth. Thus, the Western strategy should not aim to force him out of Ukraine by securing a decisive Ukrainian victory on the battlefield. This is unlikely to happen any time soon.

"Instead, bolstering Ukrainian defenses would increase the domestic political price of Russian aggression. Any 'widening of the war' by a Putin 'enraged' by the delivery of Western defensive weapons would carry very real domestic political risks. Vast majorities of Russians interviewed by pollsters have consistently opposed a large-scale war with Ukraine. Soviet casualties in Afghanistan contributed mightily to the fall of the USSR, and Putin remembers the lesson.

"Denying Moscow a quick and decisive victory would raise the domestic cost of aggression. It would force the Kremlin -- unable to borrow in the West because of sanctions -- to choose between keeping hospitals open, paying pensions on time, raising the salaries of doctors and teachers to keep up with inflation, on the one hand, and spending on tanks, missiles, artillery batteries ... on the other. Only if the Kremlin is confronted with these tough choices will Putin begin rethinking his endgame objectives in Ukraine."

There is still time to restrain Tsar Vladimir by exercising good judgment, constancy of purpose and all the other elements of a prudent foreign policy so long missing from this administration's conduct of foreign affairs.


TOPICS: Editorial; Russia
KEYWORDS: foreignaffairs; spanish; ukraine
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1 posted on 03/27/2015 2:35:18 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Ignorant, worthless article.


2 posted on 03/27/2015 2:40:38 PM PDT by Romulus
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To: Kaslin

This piece is leftist propaganda; the “Western democracies” had many more volunteers fighting for the communists than for Franco. Franco himself appealed to the West for aid and was ignored; he saw the communists for what they were, and nobody would help him and the other generals suppress the communist revolt. It ignores the burning of churches, seizures of properties, and executions of the upper class and clergy.

Supporting Franco in Spain was the best thing Hitler and Mussolini ever did in their miserable lives; when they appealed to him to join the Axis he refused, saying he only wanted to live and die in a Catholic Spain.

Anyone interested should get the rest of the story in the book “The Last Crusade”.


3 posted on 03/27/2015 2:43:11 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Romulus

“That was the trap real volunteers fighting for the republic — like George Orwell — were caught in.”

Orwell fought for the anarchists, and after the communist government crushed them and killed their leader he realized it was a hoax...and wrote “Animal Farm” afterwards. He saw through the government’s lies, where they described great victories where there had been no battle and no mention at all of disastrous defeats. In the end, unlike the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, anyone who wanted to leave Franco’s Spain was free to do so (and a huge majority didn’t).


4 posted on 03/27/2015 2:46:43 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin

We should stay out of that mess. If for no other reason, Obama can be absolutely trust to send weapons to the wrong guys. They’d probably end up with Muslim terrorists somewhere. And in the meantime, our military would have even fewer supplies if we actually need to fight.


5 posted on 03/27/2015 2:47:58 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Kaslin

Yes, because those Republicans were such angels, what with the murdering of clergy and all.

Franco saved Spain.


6 posted on 03/27/2015 2:48:43 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

I wonder if the author thinks the West should arm Palestinians.


7 posted on 03/27/2015 2:50:33 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin

So, Paul Greenburg is pro-communist, good to know.


8 posted on 03/27/2015 2:54:08 PM PDT by Varda
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To: Kaslin

Ted Cruz is right, send weapons to Ukraine.

Obama is wrong in opposing Ted Cruz.


9 posted on 03/27/2015 2:54:31 PM PDT by ansel12 (Palin--Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.)
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To: Kaslin

“The same evil empires that conspired to crush republican Spain in the 1930s — Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia — would unite again to invade Poland at the end of that decade, and set off worldwide calamity.”

The Nazis supported the rebel Nationalists.

The Soviets supported the in-power communist Republicans.


10 posted on 03/27/2015 2:55:40 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Kaslin

“Setbacks come at every turn,
New ways are hard to learn.
Tonight I saw Guernica burn;
There was always “The Cause”.

Al Stewart


11 posted on 03/27/2015 3:05:55 PM PDT by alstewartfan (You're a worn-out face in all the hangout places Where the lost souls congregate. Al Stewart)
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To: Kaslin
I don't quibble over the closing statements - arming Ukraine would be our best choice - but the author's opening and the core of his piece is utter Bull S###.

I doubt that I'll bother with "Dr. Aron's piece" or Mr. Greenberg's future opinions.

12 posted on 03/27/2015 3:15:43 PM PDT by norton
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To: norton

They are spouting the revisionist drivel that will eventually become “the truth”.


13 posted on 03/27/2015 3:21:49 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin

Pablo Picasso’s huge mural, “Guernica”, is an anti-war masterpiece. And he painted the whole thing in blacks, whites and grays. That basic color scheme made it much more powerful. It hurts your soul when you look at it. And I think that’s what he intended.


14 posted on 03/27/2015 3:51:58 PM PDT by jespasinthru (Proud Member of the Vast, Right-Wing Conspracy)
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To: Kaslin

If you change the country’s name to Vietnam and the times to 1945-75, you’ve got the same scenario. The Communists armed their forces for victory and enlisted the whole Soviet Bloc and the Red Chinese and their military industries, to overwhelm the So. Vietnamese who had garbage weapons as compared to Communist ones.

Also, the Reds never stopped sending in men and supplies despite the Paris Peace Agreement of 1973. The US abandoned SVN, Cambodia and Laos by cutting their supplies to below an allowed “one on one replacement”.

The communists didn’t want a Christian/Catholic Spain which is why they murdered thousands of clergy.

In SVN, Cambodia and Laos, the Communists didn’t want Buddhist/Christian populated countries. Church oppression in SVN is still continuing at this moment, with Buddhist priests and Catholics being tortured and jailed on non-existent and/or flimsy charges.

Franco was no saint but in terms of Spain, he actually save the country from the Communist bloc. Diem and Thieu were not saints either, but they were true patriots who tried to save their country from the atheists in Hanoi, Moscow and Peking.

Their betrayal can be laid right at the feet of the Democrats in Congress who sold them out at the cost of genocide (over 2,000,000 Cambodians, SVNese and Laotians were killed after the war was over).

Sometimes history does repeat and has a lesson that we can learn from.


15 posted on 03/27/2015 4:34:05 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (madmax)
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To: Kaslin
The amount of Nazi-supplied armaments shipped to Francisco Franco's fascist legions during the 1930s was impressive, not to mention all the German troops dispatched to fight in Spain.

And the amount of Soviet-supplied armaments shipped to the "Republicans" was impressive, not to mention all the communist troops dispatched to fight in Spain.

16 posted on 03/27/2015 5:21:45 PM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: facedown

Even worse, while German pilots in the Condor Legion were definitely supplied to Franco (along with their planes), I have not read a single account of German ground troops in Spain. Not one; this appears to be a pure fabrication. Even the revisionist History Channel has never claimed this; it mentions Italian ground troops, but never German ones.


17 posted on 03/27/2015 11:34:04 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: kearnyirish2

There were some armored units in addition to the air support. The communists supplied entire Divisions of troops.


18 posted on 03/28/2015 5:35:02 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: facedown

Italy supplied a lot of ground troops to assist Franco as well; I just don’t seeing the war being gradually morphed into a Nazi invasion of Spain with Franco as their puppet. Both the Nazis and the USSR provided weapons and specialists, while the ground war was fought primarily between Spaniards; Italy provided troops for Franco, while global communism provided troops for the communist government.


19 posted on 03/28/2015 6:02:14 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: kearnyirish2

That’s true. The Soviets were looking for a foothold in Western Europe and the Nazis were testing materials and tactics for their anticipated invasion of neighboring countries.


20 posted on 03/28/2015 9:51:41 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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