Ukraine: Are Europeans WWIII Dreaming on a Winter’s Day?

To reference the iconic 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, have the Europeans “Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”? One could wonder. After all, in 1956, the USSR sent 200,000 soldiers into Hungary. The West did not send arms to the Hungarians, call for Soviet regime change, or consider sending troops. In 1968, the USSR sent forces into Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” liberalization movement. The West did not send arms to the Czechoslovakians, call for Soviet regime change, or consider sending troops. (In fact, the U.S. actually stated it would not get involved.)

A very compelling reason for this, of course, was the atomic sword of Damocles hanging over all and sundry. Why, then-president Ike Eisenhower explicitly said regarding Hungary that he was concerned about sparking nuclear conflict. Now, though, with Russia no longer being the USSR, Moscow has given up all its nuclear weapons.

Or, so one might think given Western European chest-thumping.

(In reality, Russia can still incinerate the world.)

In the wake of the Friday dust-up between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump/Vice President J.D. Vance, Britain and France have said, reports The Telegraph, that they’re developing a “coalition of the willing” that aims to “create security guarantees that include British troops on the ground in Ukraine and fighter jets.”