Peace in our time' in Europe could occur

Should President Trump agree to what Putin sees as the minimum demands of the Russian Federation, and if Trump with his usual style succeeds in getting Zelenskyy to agree, peace may indeed be the harvest.

- M.D. NALAPAT

urope has been torn by wars for much of its recorded history. Wars of conquest, wars against aggression by fellow-Europeans. During World War I, millions died, an example being the way the war devastated France at the hands of Germany. At one point, it was regarded as inevitable that the army of Kaiser Wilhelm II would enter the gates of Paris in triumph, but by 16 September 2014, the "Miracle on the Marne" happened, and the French army threw back the Germans close to Paris, with heavy loss of life on both sides. After that, neither the French nor the Germans could regain the initiative, and the war settled into a static mode. Every foot of advance by one side was fiercely resisted by the other, with both sides suffering enormous casualties, ultimately ending by the close of the war in millions on both sides. While the shock it underwent caused France to in effect surrender without anything approaching a fight to the Nazi forces commanded by Adolf Hitler in 1940. Only after more than four years was France finally able to escape the clutches of the Nazis, including through a growing armed resistance to the occupation within the French population. In contrast, several Germans became more aggressive as a consequence of World War I. The German army had lost the war so badly that the commanders of the German forces, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, asked the civilian government to capitulate. Ignoring this, the myth of the "November criminals", that a victorious German army was made to surrender by the "November criminals" who signed the surrender document, took wings. The fiction was used to ultimately disastrous effect by a psychotic politician, Hitler, to rouse through his oratory several Germans to anger (at the "November criminals") and support the N