Feb. 5th, 1940: The Allied Supreme War Council decide to intervene regarding Germany's interest in Norway, also protesting the Soviet Union invasion of Finland. This vague and indecisive policy relies on the cooperation of Norway and Sweden. The main motivation is the Allied desire to deny Germany access to Swedish iron ore supplies, which pass through the ice-free port of Narvik in Norway.
The equivalent of this act today is much like our tenuous relationship with Saudi Arabia regarding the rest of the Arab states versus Israel, or the diplomacy with Pakistan and their involvement against the Taliban in the Afghanistan war. The United States policies prove ineffective in bending these countries to democratic ideals.
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We just finished Season 5 of West Wing, and it's funny how everything happening in that series is happening now and sounds like it was happening 70 years ago, too. "Funny" in the sense of being interesting and scary all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteHistory is doomed to repeat itself.
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