Congressman Mo Brooks House Floor Speech: Vietnam and WWII History Guide to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

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Click on the image above or HERE for video of Congressman Brooks’ House Floor speech

The full text of Congressman Brooks’ speech follows:

Mr. Speaker, by way of experience, I sat on the House armed services committee for 11 years and on the foreign affairs committee.

There is an old saying. Those who learn nothing from history are doomed to repeat it.

The lesson of Vietnam is that war is hell. If America doesn’t want to do the horrible things necessary to win a war, then America shouldn’t fight it. Be all in or all out.

A lesson of World War II is that Europe’s pre-war appeasement strategy does not work against aggressor countries.

In the 1930s, Adolph Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party repeatedly took over more and more of Europe.

From 1935, Adolph Hitler and socialist dictatorial Germany:

  • Annexed the Saar,
  • Invaded and seized Austria in the Anschluss,
  • Seizes the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia,
  • Seizes the Slovak State, Bohemia and Moravia, and
  • Forced Lithuania to cede the Memel Territory.

In response, each time Europe and the free world attempted appeasement and did little or nothing, thus emboldening Adolf Hitler and dictatorial socialist Germany.

The result?

Hitler and Germany invaded Poland, triggering the Holocaust and killing tens of millions in World War II.

The question is, “Has the world learned from history?”

In 2014 Vladimir Putin and Russia invaded Crimea.

The free world has done little or nothing.

Also in 2014, Vladimir Putin and Russia inspired a rebellion in Donetsk and Logansk in Ukraine, costing thousands of lives and creating hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees.

The free world has done little or nothing.

Last month, Russia invaded Ukraine. . . again . . . apparently seeking the total destruction and conquest of Ukraine.

I admire the bravery and kinship spirit of Ukrainian citizens who fight and die for freedom against all odds.

They remind me of American Revolutionary War heroes like George Washington and Patrick Henry and places like Valley Forge, Cowpens, Kings Mountain and Saratoga.

Fortunately, something is different in this Russian attack on Ukraine.

This time the world does nothing. This time, the free world helps Ukraine during its time of peril. The future will tell if the aid of the world is sufficient and effective.

First, Europe and America impose economic sanctions on Russia. In this vein, we must learn from Vietnam. Economic sanctions must be full or total. There can be no half measures. America has to be in it to win, or not be in it at all.

Second, Europe and America must provide Ukraine with anti-tank Javelins, Stinger-destroying aircraft, advanced fighter jets to replace those lost in combat, and other military equipment that Ukraine desperately needs.

Third, Europe must decide whether or not to deploy combat troops. To emphasize, I am of the opinion that America should not even consider providing combat troops to Ukraine unless Europe does so first in significant numbers and, even then, whatever the America decides to help troops should never go beyond assisting our European allies.

Like many Americans, I am tired of America spending our treasury and our lives in so many parts of the globe. It is time for the rest of the free world to mobilize.

The Ukrainians bravely threw off the dictatorial boot in 1991. The Russians can and must do the same.

My message to the Russian people is this: your Russian comrades fought alongside you in World War II against Adolf Hitler and dictatorial socialist Germany. Now Vladimir Putin is forcing you to kill each other and die by the thousands in Ukraine.

It doesn’t have to be like that.

The real path to peace is to do what America regularly does: replace our political leaders.

I urge freedom-loving Russians to stand up bravely and do the same: do what is necessary to get the leadership Russians want and deserve. And do it before it’s too late.

This is the lesson of the Second World War.

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