Vladimir Putin is not the first dictator to threaten Europe. In relatively recent memory another dictator threatened Europe. His name was Adolf Hitler. It is worth comparing the democratic response to these two dictators, because democracies are making the same mistakes now that they made in the 1930s. Putin and Hitler are seemingly different on the surface. Putin is smoother, more rationally calculating, but much less charismatic dictator than Hitler. But these differences are trivial compared to their similarities. They both had and have the same expansionistic strategic goals and tactical a…