1939-2022
The day before yesterday, the British guaranteed Finland's territorial integrity against all-comers. They have no real intention to actually defend Finland. They can't. They don't have the resources. It's all show. They did that in 1939 when they gave Poland a similar "guarantee." Then too, the British had no intention to actually intervene. But the Poles believed them. They then rejected German overtures for Danzig (now Gdansk). The only thing Britain guaranteed was Poland's destruction.
1939 Restructuring central Europe
In 1919 Lithuania was given Memel, now Klaipeda; a nice Baltic seaport and resort once part of Germany. In 1939 the Germans wanted it back and got it. They signed a treaty that gave Lithuania free access to the port for 99 years. Lithuania was at least smart enough to see the writing on the wall. Poland was not. It was twenty years after Versailles and by German reckoning, it was time to fix up some of the obvious oversights and misapplications of history that went into Woodrow Wilson's preening "self-determination" process. Hitler and the German foreign office assumed that these relatively minor territorial alterations would and could be done without war. And they were. Lithuania proved reasonable as Memel was, after all, German and not Lithuanian. With the Germans who once lived there all dead and gone, it is pure Lithuanian now.
In 1939 Germany wanted Danzig back from Poland. The city was given to Poland by the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler assured everyone Danzig would be like Memel. He made Poland a similar offer and the Poles would have been wise to take it. Instead they turned to England for help and it was their last mistake. Poland would soon be obliterated with 6 million dead. Because we view the 2nd World War only in retrospect, there seems to be an aura of inevitability about the destruction of Poland. But what if Poland's leadership accepted the loss of Danzig and chose instead a closer relationship Germany as did Lithuania? Back in 1916 when the German military created a place out there called Ober Ost, they also tried to recreate a Polish state as an ally. Unfortunately the crazed military dictator Ludendorf ran the show and the attempt failed. This alliance could have worked in 1939 because there were people on both sides that wanted it: except England and France decided to intervene. This is now viewed as a good thing even though it made Poland's annihilation certain. It is now 2022 and the situation is the same: except it is Finland about to be obliterated.
2022 The world order is restructured
Poland's last mistake was thinking the west would defend them. The utterly foolish Finns believe the same thing. They want a "fast-track" to join NATO. In other words, Finland wants to join a military alliance that is at war with Russia. Until Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland was avowedly neutral. They were happy with a government primarily interested in the sociology of post-modern feminism and climate change. Now they want war; because that is what you get when you join a military alliance at war. The Finns don't understand that the old international order that promised and protected their neutrality is gone with the wind. The Ukraine War is not some silly misadventure initiated by an insane Russian autocrat. Russia either wins this existential battle or else submits to slave-nation status. That's how Russia views it. They are at war with the west and have said so in the plainest terms. Russia will never allow NATO (American) military presence on their 800-mile border with Finland. This threat was why they went to war with Ukraine. The day Finland joins NATO is the day that Helsinki will be flattened and Finland quickly ushered back into the Stone Age. With Finland and Eastern Europe reduced to medieval life, only the American ruling elite will gain. The American dollar will then be the world's single safe haven for the mega-rich and their lackeys in a world "reset" to accommodate their interests. That's why both Republicans and Democrats keep feeding weapons and money into this war while American babies go hungry.