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Letters March 2: We fail to learn from history; oil and gas fuel global conflict

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A civilian apartment building is damaged following a Russian rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. Letter-writers have a ­variety of suggestions on how NATO can respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. EFREM LUKATSKY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

International justice is a complete farce

Two of the four indictments at the major Nuremberg trials were for a “plan or conspiracy to accomplish a crime against peace” and “waging war of aggression.” These subsequently became incorporated into international law as war crimes and the perpetrators could (and should) be charged as war criminals.

Clearly this invasion of Ukraine was planned months in advance. Undoubtedly, the justification for it was based on lies (not mistakes). Long-standing personal and political grievances between leaders played a major role in planning for the war. In addition to these particular laws, invasion of another country that poses no immediate threat is against international law, as is the use of military force to overthrow a legitimate government.

It is tragic how little we learn from history, even when it is recent. I have just described exactly what took place in Iraq only a few years ago. Here we go again, word for word, same crimes. Interesting though how fervent international condemnation failed to materialize when America was the aggressor.

I suppose nothing should surprise us and we should have no expectations of a change for the better. After all, three permanent members of the UN Security Council represent countries guilty of recent or ongoing war crimes: Russia (Ukraine), China (Uighurs) and the U.S. (Iraq).

Dr. Adrian Fine, MD
Victoria

We need to find a cure against war

War has been used in the past for aggression and for defending against an aggressor. Millions of lives have been lost: men, women and children. Today, one could think war is obsolete with the fear of climate change that could cause human extinction, or the scourge of a pandemic that has caused so much suffering and death. Yet today, we have a country, Russia, deaf to these fears, attacking in all-out war its neighbour, Ukraine.

Do we help the underdog with weapons for defence? Do we support sanctions? Solitary confinement can be a cruel punishment. What if we support sanctions and stopped trade with Russia? What if we closed Russian embassies throughout the world and sent their ambassadors home and expelled Russia from the UN? What effect would this have on the Russian population and their sense of world respect? Could this be the cure against war?

Robert Winkenhower
Victoria

What about the security of Northern Canada?

In recent days, Canadians have all been focusing on Russia invading Ukraine, the implications that it might have on the NATO neighbouring countries and what could trigger Article 5 of NATO Collective Defence.

Meanwhile in the Arctic, we have eight countries that have common boundaries: Canada, the U.S. (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Up to now, no questions have been asked to our government officials on what would happen if Russia decided to invade non-Russian territories in the Arctic and what NATO’s position would be if such a case would arise.

Paul Tormey
Langford

Russia’s invasions, by the letters

When the then-Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it was ironically suggested that it was working in alphabetical order. In the event, due to local resistance aided by the West, the Soviets backed off with a bloodied nose and never reached letter B.

Now, it seems, by invading Ukraine, Russia has resorted to a reversed ­alphabetical schedule. On the upside, this might offer its neighbours a rough guide as to when to pull up the drawbridge.

J.G. Lover
Oak Bay

Pitching in, but on the wrong team

Can you imagine how the U.S. would be handling Ukraine if Trump were president? Unquestionably he would send in American troops. Unfortunately, this would be to support the Russians.

S.M. Shuler
Victoria

International sanctions taking their toll

At last, some good news from Russia: the ruble is reduced to rubble.

Mike Hanna
Saanich

Isolate Russia and avoid the abyss

We remain incredulous as the world teeters on “the abyss of destruction” (as so aptly stated by John F. Kennedy some six decades ago) when the then-Soviet Union played the same game of chicken, now with its renamed successor, the Russian Federation, and its leader, Vladimir Putin. As we continue to work through a world pandemic that has cost two million lives, we now face an even greater threat from the Putin leadership in the Russian oligarchy. Even Russian citizens are demonstrating against their country’s incomprehensible aggression.

Sadly, it’s a leadership that seems to have forgotten that 27 million lives were lost from a similar aggressor, Adolf Hitler. What is even more stunning is that Putin and his oligarchs are following the same playbook used by this infamous war criminal and genocidal maniac. A playbook that the world ignored as Hitler slowly invaded and assimilated other independent country’s territories; the Sudetenland, the Rhineland, Czechoslovakia and Austria before it invaded Poland. It remains amazing how horrifically bad history repeats itself.

We must also be mindful of any treaties or agreements currently in place, or contemplated in the future, with the Russian Federation; they simply cannot be trusted. Putin’s assertion that no invasion would occur in Ukraine was a contrived lie.

The world must now isolate the Russian Federation and proceed cautiously to intervene to halt what is its recent track of unbridled aggression and avoid falling into the “abyss” so aptly described by Kennedy so many years ago. Climate change and global warming are the least of our concerns at this time.

John Stevenson
Victoria

Standing up for democratic principles

France, and perhaps others, are against excluding Russia from the SWIFT banking system because it will hurt them, too.

When there are principles involved, you have to expect to be hurt if you want to stand up for those principles. I think most people in the democratic world would agree to feeling some hurt in this particular case. Because if we don’t stand up for our democratic principles, then we invite more attacks against them. Wouldn’t it be better to focus on how to address mitigating the hurt rather than giving up on our principles? Maybe we all need to share in the hurt equally. I’m not sure what that means, but let’s figure it out.

China is watching all this very closely and will join in the attacks (is Taiwan next?) if we don’t act firmly with Russia.

Since Russia produces half the world’s oil, it might be time to cut ourselves out of Russian oil as well. It might add more incentive to governments to react faster to climate change as a result. That could be a good thing.

Maybe we should share in the hurt, since Europe will suffer the most from cutting off Russian oil. Let’s figure out how we can help Europe financially and technically to really hit Russia where it will hurt them. The Marshall Plan comes to mind.

Ian Gordon
Nanoose Bay

Get RT channel off our cable systems

As the world watches Russian military forces close in on Kyiv and Russian state-controlled media continue to promote blatant lies, false narratives and misleading images of Ukraine, Telus continues to offer RT (formerly Russia Today) as one of its news channels. Has anyone ever watched that channel? It is propaganda pure and simple, thinly disguised as news.

Shaw, Rogers and BCE also offer RT at subscribers’ expense. These corporations are making money from Putin’s messaging. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission needs to wake up on this one. This is beyond disappointing.

Robert Hume
Sidney

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