"Lebensraum!"

I have several friends who are involved with law enforcement, and I value their perspective on certain aspects of life. There are people out there that are child molesters, and drug addicts, and if you ask most experienced law enforcement officers, they will tell you that molesters are molesters forever, and an addict will always be an addict, even when they are off drugs for years.

Power is also an “addictive behavior”, as we have seen by some abusive behavior from our political leaders, both past and present.

Hitler wanted to see Germany return to the glory of its past, to reclaim those days of Teutonic legends of “super human Aryans”. When he returned from WWI,he saw a Germany in ruin with high unemployment and runaway inflation much higher than any other nation had ever seen, including America’s “Great Depression”. Hitler gave the German people a common enemy, world Jewry and communism. People who are starving, broke and angry were happy to embrace Hitler’s twisted logic; they needed someone to blame, and they wanted a return to past glory. What actually saved Germany was the free market economy after WW II. Free Germany was an economic giant in manufacturing and was the corporate center of Europe. There was no return to the Teutonic Glory proposed by Adolf Hitler.

Born in the late 40s, I remember the threat of communism which hung over America from the old Soviet Union. Stalin was followed by Khrushchev and no love was lost on the American people by either of these men. The Soviet Union was a looming giant with the ability to launch nuclear weapons on a level that could possibly equal the United States. Russia and her puppet republics were a force to be reckoned with, as she held a virtual stranglehold on all of Eastern Europe.

Yesterday, I read about a speech made by Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, which resurrected visions of the U.S.S.R. of the past. This speech has an undertone of Russian dominance throughout Europe.

Putin said “Russia is actively participating in the international effort to support the ailing European economies, (like China is doing for U.S.) and is consistently working with its partners to formulate COLLECTIVE DECISIONS under the auspices of the IMF. Russia is not opposed in principle to direct FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE in some cases.” He also said ”…I am convinced that GLOBAL SECURITY can only be achieved through cooperation with RUSSIA…”. I don’t know how this sounds to you, but it is all too familiar to me; it sounds like European dominance by the Russian government, and what follows that? If this doesn’t disturb you, listen to this quote “…Russia proposes moving toward the creation of a COMMON ECONOMIC AND HUMAN SPACE from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean__ a community referred by Russian experts to as THE UNION OF EUROPE, which will strengthen Russia’s potential and position in its economic pivot toward the NEW ASIA.”

In Hitler’s Germany he said what the German people needed was “Lebensraum”, living space; this was his justification for conquest. The above statements from Putin certainly sound like his version of “Lebensraum”, and I hope the good people of Russia don’t fall under his spell; only disaster will follow.