WHEN COMMUNISM COMES TO TOWN

When the Russians invaded Georgia the other day, it reminded us of the days when communism held eastern Europe by the throat. Those days, I hope, aren't returning anytime soon. Putin made his message clear to all bordering nations: Russia is back in the game. Putin was also sending a message to the U.S. and NATO. Update from Powerline.

As a student of history, General George S. Patton, Jr understood and hated the Russians, never trusted them and made it clear that one day we'd have to deal with them. How right he was. In fact, at the close of WWII, since we already had the manpower and equipment in place, Patton thought we should finish the job and destroy Stalin's armies, thus preventing a future problem with communist expansion. However, Patton's superiors thought otherwise.

When the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War ended, we all thought the USSR's communist threat was finally over, never to be repeated. How wrong we were.

Communism is a special brand of evil that delivers suffering and death on a scale that most could never understand. Compared to Stalin and Mao, Hitler was a novice. If you find the time, I suggest you read about communism as well as its younger and less developed sibling, socialism. Understanding history is everything. (video hat tip: Pitchpull)



Early on this day in 1961, the people of Berlin were sitting down to have breakfast. But to their horror, the menu had suddenly been changed. They were about to be force-fed a full and lifelong serving of communism, and there was nothing they could do about it. Outside of statements of protest, the world did very little. The suffering had begun: