It was, eerily enough, 99 years ago, and the parallels are a little too close for comfort. A reader writes:
When I heard of the plane having been shot down yesterday, I immediately thought of the Lusitania. Now, that was probably mostly because I’m currently working on finishing my dissertation which includes a chapter on World War I. And while as a historian, I am quite aware that history doesn’t simply repeat itself and that the current situation is indeed very different from the one a hundred years ago, there are a few takeaways from the sinking of the Lusitania.
The passenger vessel was torpedoed by German submarines in 1915 after Germany had declared the waters around the UK a war zone. 1,198 people on board lost their lives. Among them were 128 U.S. citizens. This act of aggression against a civilian target caused the American public’s attitude toward Germany to change and made America’s entry into the war in 1917 easier.
We are in a very different situation now. The skies above Ukraine were not declared a war zone by Russia. Russian military (as far as we know) did not shoot down this plane. But the Russian supported separatists in Eastern Ukraine apparently did. With Russian support of these separatists (including apparently military equipment), this puts Russia in a similar predicament that Germany was in after the sinking of the Lusitania.
Similar in the following aspects:
Russia and the separatists so far had several important countries that showed sympathies towards their position. It has also received support from parts of the population of several Western countries, even though their governments were sympathetic towards the Ukraine. This may now well change – just as sympathies towards Germany changed after the Lusitania sinking, especially with so many citizens of Western countries among the dead. Will this lead to additional sanctions? Yes. Will there be military retaliations? Highly unlikely. Will this be a repeat of World War I? No. History doesn’t simply repeat itself. But we can learn lessons from it. Let’s hope Mr. Putin does.
I do too. I’ll note, however, Putin’s willingness to tell bald-faced lies about the situation in Ukraine, his Cheney-esque inability to admit error, and the highly pitched nationalist atmosphere his entire political standing now rests on. I’ll also note the pathetic unwillingness of the Germans and the Italians and the British to enact any serious sanctions so far (including Merkel’s refusal to commit to anything yesterday); and the somewhat Putin-supportive words from the Chinese government, decrying a rush to judgment on who shot down the plane.
This is a 21st Century tragedy born of a 19th Century farce.
The Dish 