On this, and other blogs, there's often talk about freedom. We fight for freedom, or we want freedom or we want to maintain freedom. 
But what gets lost sometimes, is what we are really talking about. People in Prague, or Warsaw, or Budapest know: they lost their freedom to the Soviets (Warsaw to the Germans, then the Soviets) during the 20th century. Free nations now, they know what freedom means.
Forty years ago today, August 21, 2968, Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, Czechoslovakia to eliminate the "Prague Spring," an early form of Glasnost introduced into Czechoslovakia when reformist Alexander Dubček came to power in January 1968.
Peter Worthington, who was there, has a fine piece on the invasion in today's Sun: The Death of Prague Spring. He has far more knowledge on the subject than I do, so I will defer to his column on the subject.
Prague Spring was about freedom, real freedom for real people. The invasion in August '68 was about repression, about the glory of the state over the glory of the person. A real fight, for real freedom.
But what gets lost sometimes, is what we are really talking about. People in Prague, or Warsaw, or Budapest know: they lost their freedom to the Soviets (Warsaw to the Germans, then the Soviets) during the 20th century. Free nations now, they know what freedom means.
