Recent events evoke disturbing comparisons to events in Eastern Europe both in 1914 and in 1939, years in which war broke out in Europe.

Today, as in 1914, we had an unrealistically pacifistic president who relied on a “sense of common humanity.” Then, after two small Eastern European countries declared war over the assassination of a member of a royal family, the rest of Europe stumbled into World War I, eventually dragging the U.S. into it.

In 1939, Hitler’s Germany decided to “assimilate” ethnic Germans in Austria and what is now Yugoslavia, and British Prime Minister Chamberlain reached an agreement with Hitler where Hitler promised not to invade Poland.

Now, we have Vladimir Putin annexing Crimea and attempting to take over eastern Ukraine, claiming the right to “reclaim those areas for the ethnic Russians who live there,” or words to that effect.

Now, we have a president who tells Putin to “get serious” about ending hostilities in Ukraine.

Fox News has reported that President Obama sent a letter directly to Putin accusing him of violating part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Apparently the Russians have launched at least one long range cruise missile since 2008. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander of NATO forces in Europe both stated that this violation must not go unchallenged.

Crunch time! Given President Obama’s total lack of credibility among just about all our allies, and certainly with Putin, are we about to hear about another meaningless “Red Line?”

Is this another Chamberlain moment?

Richard Grover, Mason Township