Partners. . .

(Partners. . .)

Wartime alliances can be crucial and that was never more evident than in World War II, the Atlantic Charter most crucially. Who can deny that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prine Minister Winston Churchill were effective leaders. The same was also true of the Axis, namely Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. However, whereas Hitler was able to conquer Western Europe, the Italian armed forces were an abject failure. The Italian army was unable to secure Ethiopia. Mussolini did send troops into southern France, after the battle had already been decided. As FDR put it: "the hand that held the dagger plunged into his neighbor's back."  attempted forays into Greece and North Africa were un-mitigated disasters. The fact is that Nazi Germany was forced to compensate in the Balkans and Africa with forces that would have been better served in other theaters. And, it was after completing the campaign in Africa that the Allies first seized Sicily and then main Italy itself. By the end of the War, Italy was devastated and Benito Mussolini was mutilated and hung with some piano wire. By that time, Hitler met his end in Berlin.

In his own recollections, Winston Churchill made the comment that had Italy not joined Germany, had Mussolini opted to stay neutral like Franco in Spain, But the Italian Fascist was in awe of the German Führer and believed that Hitler was key in re-establishing the Roman Empire. Mussolini even sent an Italian force to aid the German efforts in the Soviet Union. As it happened, this Italian force was destroyed in the battles around the Stalingrad area.

As the Berlin/Rome Axis was what there was for the Second World War, so today there is the Beijing/Moscow Axis and now, as then, there is clearly a dominant partner and the weaker one. Just how weak was not generally known till recent events. It was bad enough that the Ukraine War has lasted this long but now it would appear that Russia is also experiencing internal tensions, as evidenced by the recent Wagner advance on Moscow.

How is China viewing this ? Beijing is offering what support in can but if the situation on the ground in Ukraine and now Russia proper, with President Putin's own prospects not completely free of doubt, how all this might affect the Peoples' Republic's own ambitions for Taiwan.

In any event, if this the new Beijing/Moscow Axis, Russia being the junior "partner," the U.S. should remain neutral, as Italy could have done. Conduct freedom of navigation and other exercises, but there should be no further diplomatic interaction. One can add Blinken's disastrous trip to China for evidence of Biden Administration mis-steps. This is a coal that must be allowed to cool on its own.