In 1939 the West discovered that shameful appeasement of a dictator does not work when Hitler drove his armies into Poland, sparking World War II.
It is an outrage that the current leaders in the West know little of history - or have no bones in their backs - because Putin is outplaying them over Ukraine in an appalling replay of the 1930s.
Putin had Russian-speaking agitators fomenting unrest, then sent in thinly disguised Russian troops to take key parts of the coveted Crimea region of Ukraine. Finally he threatened full military action if Ukraine used its military to keep the Crimea. He is now seeing how far he can go in eastern Ukraine before the West mans-up.
There are very disturbing reports out of Ukraine that Russian-speaking groups are demanding Jews register - a step that must send shivers of fear up that much abused group.
As Hitler showed, only a show of force will make a bully blink and Barack Obama, David Cameron and other leaders in the West have shown they are unprepared to take him on.
The solution seems pretty darned easy to me.
Make Ukraine a member of Nato and therefore any new attack on her will be an assault on the whole organisation, allowing them to retaliate.
And the West must re-arm Ukraine so it can retake the Crimea.
To allow Putin to get away with his invasion only paves the way for a bigger, more serious confrontation in the future.
And if any leader mentions "Peace in our Time" we should just shoot them.
THERE are a number of things the Green Party does well - such as standing up for the environment and ... well ... standing up for the environment.
Unfortunately co-leader Russel Norman loses it a bit when he gets involved in less fuzzy things such as killing terrorists by having drone aircraft drop high ordnance on them from on high.
After the news a New Zealand citizen had been killed by such an attack, Norman came out with the line: "The Prime Minister is now supporting unlawful murder."
It needs to be pointed out to him that anyone mucking around with an al-Qaeda cell deserves what they get - even if they happen to have a Kiwi passport - and secondly killing a terrorist is not murder, it is called execution.
NOW I know where bureaucrats get this idea they are little tins gods.
With a stroke of a nib, the pen pushers have achieved a feat many would have thought impossible - they have moved the thriving metropolis of Te Puke to Rotorua!
You may say it couldn't be done, but you clearly don't understand the power of the Electoral Commission, which has sawn off the Western Bay town and attached it to the Rotorua electorate.
THE last thing you want your kids to do while out Easter egg hunting is find anything nasty.
So you can imagine the shock of one Tennessee mum when she went under her deck to grab yummy treats only to discover a dead body instead.
She told the local TV station she had no idea how the middle-aged man got there.
One would hope it wasn't the Easter Bunny.
OUT of the True Love files comes the true tale of a sweet couple in Ohio, US of A, who were married for 70 years, couldn't bear to be separated and died within 15 hours of each other.
They had eloped as teens, had eight kids and held hands every morning during breakfast.
When his beloved wife died the husband quickly faded and within 12 hours he was on his own deathbed surrounded by their children.
As I said to my good lady, I hope one of us outlives the other by more than 15 hours - 'coz who else should spend the insurance money.
Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.
richard@richardmoore.com
