Almost exactly one hundred years later, in almost exactly the same place.
EDWARD LUCAS: I hope I’m wrong but historians may look back and say this was the start of World War III
- ‘Vladimir Putin is striking at the heart of the West’
- ‘We can chose to surrender any responsibility we have to protect Ukraine and the Baltic states’
- ‘Or we can mount a last-ditch attempt to deter Russia from furthering its imperial ambitions’
- ‘If we choose to resist Putin, we will risk a terrifying miltary escalation’
- ‘I do not think it an exaggeration to say this could bring us to the brink of nuclear war‘
Deep in the flat and featureless landscape of eastern Ukraine, it is all too possible that the outline of World War III is taking shape.
Whipped up by the Kremlin propaganda machine and led by Russian military intelligence, armed men are erecting road blocks, storming police stations and ripping down the country’s flag.
They are demolishing not just their own country — bankrupt, ill-run and beleaguered — but also the post-war order that has kept most of Europe and us, here in Britain, safe and free for decades.
Vladimir Putin is striking at the heart of the West.
What a time to have a lightweight narcissist dodging his responsibilities as the Leader of the Free World. Back when Russia bit off a piece of Georgia, George Bush must have thought that it is a good thing that the mid-east wars are winding down and the full weight of the American War Machine will be available to fore-check Vlad.
And what a magnificent war machine it was. Has anyone at any time in history ever thrown away a more well designed and expensive tool?
On the North River 