From an Associated Press report on the increasingly dangerous situation between Ukraine and Russia:
"In his address to parliament, Putin said the 'extraordinary situation in Ukraine' was putting at risk the lives of Russian citizens and military personnel stationed at the Crimean naval base that Moscow has maintained since the Soviet collapse."Excerpt from a speech by Adolf Hitler in 1938 rationalizing the invasion of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland:
"I am asking neither that Germany be allowed to oppress three and a half million Frenchmen, nor am I asking that three and a half million Englishmen be placed at our mercy. Rather I am simply demanding that the oppression of three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia cease and that the inalienable right to self-determination take its place."Now, Putin's far from being a Hitler, but it's worth noting that when an autocrat like Putin wants to justify military aggression, he says that he just wants to protect Russians in a neighboring country. And don't believe that his "concern" is limited to Crimea; he's eyeing all of eastern Ukraine which is heavily populated with ethnic Russians.
UPDATE: Hillary Clinton is seeing much the same pattern from the '30s.
