The Past is Present - Part I: In the 1930s many European countries were in denial about Hitler. Today the same is true about the threat Vladimir Putin's aggression and imperialistic ambitions

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WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe

joe kirwin

17 episodes

2 days ago

Italy was on the wrong side of history in WW II and the campaign to defeat Nazis and Italian Fascists is known as the Forgotten Front. Launched after the liberation of Rome, the Gothic Line offensive barely gets a footnote in most military history annals. But it featured the most multinational, multi-racial army in WW II. Intertwined in this battle was a vicious Italian civil war and hundreds of civilian massacres - war crimes never prosecuted. Collective amnesia about this ugly past is a present political menace in the face of Italy's economic and defense challenges.

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The Past is Present - Part I: In the 1930s many European countries were in denial about Hitler. Today the same is true about the threat Vladimir Putin's aggression and imperialistic ambitions

WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe

24 minutes 4 seconds

5 months ago

The Past is Present - Part I: In the 1930s many European countries were in denial about Hitler. Today the same is true about the threat Vladimir Putin's aggression and imperialistic ambitions

Russian emigre and Prague-based history professor Sergei Medvedev explains how the past is present in Europe as Russian President Vladimir Putin makes no secret of his plans to rebuild the Iron Curtain. In addition just as Hitler had European and Asian allies so does Putin. Today in Europe a growing list of far-right, far-left and centrist politicians either support Putin or are apologists. Whereas Japan was on Hitler's side Putin receives assistance from North Korea, China and Iran providing assistance in his war against Ukraine along with a growing cadre of far-right, far-left and centrists politicians in Europe.

Medvedev also explains today's political and economic similarities with the 1930s when a far-right, intolerant, anti-science political movement swept Germany. He also dissects how U.S. President Donald Trump's MAGA movement is simply bent on chaos and has attracted the anti-science climate change deniers and anti-vaccine movement - just as happened in the 1930s when brilliant minds such Albert Einstein were forced to leave Europe. As Trump makes a mockery of the blood and treasure countries such as the United States and others gave to save democracy in Europe in WW II, Medvedev also concurs that Trump and his territorial ambitions in Greenland, Canada and Panama have undermined the moral imperative to stop Putin's aggression in Ukraine. This Trump imperialism also helps explain his obvious appeasement approach toward the Russian leader. ``The post WW II international institutions are being battered from all sides,'' Medvedev says. ``It is a very dangerous time we are living in.''