Jerry Springer: Russia's 'emerging Hitler' must be stopped, but is US military answer?
OK, I admit I’m struggling. The two sides of me are in the midst of a moral, practical and, yes, political debate.
There’s the Gerald side – born of German Jewish parents in England during World War II – the part of me that can never separate myself from my grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins exterminated in Nazi Concentration Camps, as Hitler seized Austria, then part of Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland), then all of Czechoslovakia…and then Poland…and then 6 million Jews…and welcome to World War II.
And yet, despite these obvious signs of his Satanic plans to take over Europe, and then much of the world, it wasn’t until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor two years later, that we finally entered the war to save the world for democracy.
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That’s the family I was born into, the childhood that engulfed me, the history Mom and Dad could never escape even though they did manage to avoid capture in Germany by getting to England a mere two weeks before Hitler invaded Poland starting World War II and in the process, permanently shutting the gates on all Jews trying to get out.
That memory, that family experience, etched into my consciousness by the faded pictures of family members hanging on our walls, family members taken from their homes, first tortured, then gassed – that reality which shaped my values, and yes, my politics – that is the Gerald I was raised as.
The other side of me is the Jerry side, the name hung on me when I went away to college.
The hippie, anti-war, Give Peace A Chance, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary side, with the iconic line from "Blowing In The Wind" – "How many deaths will it take ‘til we know that too many people have died?"
That peace loving, "Stop the War" side is now (with what’s currently going on in Ukraine), mired in an internal struggle within my conscience.
The Gerald side argues that this 21st century-version of an emerging Hitler must be stopped with force, if that’s what it takes. Meanwhile, the Jerry side argues that an American military response cannot be the answer, because the result would be even more killing. (Can you say World War III?)
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I understand, or should I say, Jerry understands, that sending troops or enforcing "no-fly zones" with our own planes would result in the Russians firing back.
And if we get into a shooting war with Russia, where does that end? Do we bomb their missile sites? Do they then attack ours? It’s hard to see how this ends well.
But Gerald watches what Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing to the citizens of Ukraine. Indeed, each night I’m looking at that 40-mile convoy of tanks and trucks making their way, albeit slowly, to Kiev…at times just sitting there – in plain sight – ready to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians.
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These are people who have done absolutely nothing to Russia, who pose absolutely no threat to Russia, and here we are, as we are quick to tell everyone, by far the strongest nation in world history, a military unmatched on this planet, unable, or at least unwilling to stop the slaughter.
What good is all this super-power, if it’s useless in trying to save democracy?
So here I am…Gerald vs. Jerry.
Is our response to Russia invading Ukraine adequate, which Gerald is questioning? Or, is the risk of our military involvement beyond just supplying arms, simply too great a risk to take in light of the possibility of millions of lives snuffed out in the mushroom clouds of a superpower nuclear confrontation? That’s the Jerry side.
Make no mistake. The delicate, magical and professional way President Joe Biden has handled this entire matter, by uniting Europe, NATO and much of the world – unthinkable just two short years ago – has been a lesson in moral and practical world leadership we haven’t seen in a generation. It's a perfect example of a president rising to the moment.
I’m well aware that any issues I might be raising are surely being dealt with 24/7 in the situation rooms of all our Western allies – weighing all the means from sanctions to cyberattacks, to increased weaponry for the Ukrainians to troop buildup of all Western nations to enforceable no-fly zones.
They’re all being considered against the risks of each one.
I also know this: Even though there’s no question in my mind that Putin will ultimately pay a price for his terror, specifically in the collapse of the Russian economy, his isolation from the rest of the world and the increasing likelihood that he will be removed from power by the Russians themselves, I think we’re fooling ourselves if we think that anything short of military force will stop Putin from destroying Ukraine, slaughtering its citizens and virtually leveling the country.
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Then, what’s to stop him from taking over Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania? And if our answer is, "well, we’ll step in then…we’ll declare war then," then what’s the moral justification for letting all these Ukrainians die before we decide to save democracy?
The answer is, there is none, unless you believe that Putin will stop after Ukraine.
Neville Chamberlain, of "Peace in our time" fame, if he were around today, might remind us how well that worked out.
Jerry Springer is a former Cincinnati mayor, member of Cincinnati City Council and news anchor for WLWT-TV, Channel 5. He hosted a nationally syndicated talk show between 1991 and 2018 and currently hosts a courtroom show called Judge Jerry. In 2015, his Jerry Springer podcast debuted.