In response to John Haag’s Jan. 19 guest column [“The road to nuclear war through Ukraine“], nuclear war has been avoided for 80 years due to Mutually Assured Destruction. All nuclear powers knew that attacking another would invite total retaliation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken that “promise” by threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. If the West gives up Ukraine to Putin as Donald Trump wants, Putin will use the same game to threaten the Baltic countries, Romania, Poland, etc. to create a new Iron Curtain. And China will do the same with Taiwan.
The Ukraine war started because Ukrainians rose up against an autocratic leader who was Putin’s puppet, to join the EU and become a democracy. There are more fascists in Russia and the U.S. than in Ukraine. Civilians in Russia avoid conscription by paying bribes and leaving the country. Russia is very slowly taking territory at a cost of 1,000 Russians per day, over a million Russians have been killed. Russia is not “winning,” yet. If the U.S. and Europe gave the Ukraine the non-nuclear weapons they want and Trump imposed real economic penalties on Russia, Ukraine could halt Russia in their tracks and force a settlement.
Ending this war with Russia “losing” Ukraine, would establish that bullies like Russia, China, and Trump can’t attack and take over other countries. This would remove the biggest flashpoint of international conflict and nuclear war.
Christian Bratina
Northampton