President Truman was a lifelong student of history and wove its
various lessons into his day-to-day decision-making. In words
that relate to what Truman historian Elizabeth Edwards Spalding
called the "timeless struggle" between the forces of
freedom and tyranny, Truman said "It was the same thing ... in
Greece and Rome as it is now. ... The only thing new in the world
is the history you don't know."
Well, one area of the world where the "timeless
struggle" between the forces of freedom and tyranny continues
is in eastern Ukraine. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's
supreme allied commander, recently told the Senate Armed Services
Committee that Russian military forces are using the current
cease-fire to strengthen their command-and-control presence in that
region, build up equipment stockpiles and further integrate
Russian-separatist force structures. In a blunt and bleak
assessment of the situation, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
simply said that "war
