Parallels in history offer guidance today

At the close of World War II in Europe, the Allied Forces closed on Berlin from the west, and the Russians closed from the east. Control of Berlin became an issue. In 1948, the Russians blockaded Berlin, disallowing the U.S. ground access to the city.  Memory of the recent war that claimed 50 million lives prevented a direct military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia. But the U.S. found a solution, an airlift.

During the next 11 months, the U.S. and allies conducted an airlift that saw cargo planes bringing supplies and landing in the Berlin area at a rate of 1,500 planes per day, delivering as much as 9,000 tons of supplies each day. The airlift delivered 2.3 million tons of food, fuel, and other supplies. The Russians threw in the towel; they ended the blockade. 

World War II devastated the economies of European powers, and they lost control of their foreign empires. The French, for example, lost their holdings in Indochina, and the British had to forego their domination of India.

A French company dug the Suez Canal in Egypt in the 1860s, and it was operated by French investors and England. In the 1950s, Egypt nationalized the canal. It was, after all, in Egypt. In 1956, the English and French, with Israeli assistance, launched an attack on Suez to retake their imperial holdings. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower said NO, and the invasion stopped in its tracks. The invaders withdrew. Eisenhower was a respected leader.

At an earlier time, Americans of European descent nearly annihilated the native American Indians and took their land. During the 20th century, the United States fire-bombed cities in Germany and Japan before we detonated nuclear weapons on Japanese cities. We are hypocritical if we condemn the Israeli government for its catastrophic treatment of a million-plus Palestinians, but we are morally deficient if we do not. It is imprudent to indiscriminately destroy human life regardless of the identity of the party that implements the carnage.

Osama bin Laden and the majority of his 9/11 suicide squad were Saudis. The world would certainly have condemned America if we had launched a war on Saudi Arabians who had no role in Osama bin Laden’s madness.

We can provide humanitarian relief to Palestine. Our logistical capability to provide humanitarian relief is far greater than it was in the 1950s. Whether we have the necessary leadership is unanswered.