Posted: 03/04/2022 17:00:20 Modified: 04/03/2022 16:59:55 With all due respect to Reverend Peter Kakos, who I am sure is a man of ...
Posted: 03/04/2022 17:00:20
Modified: 04/03/2022 16:59:55
With all due respect to Reverend Peter Kakos, who I am sure is a man of peace, his letter “Will they ever learn(March 1) contains a deeply flawed and even dangerous argument. First, NATO already has the kind of weapons on the Russian border that Reverend Kakos argues Putin is trying to keep out of Ukraine (not ICBMs).
Second, and more specifically, comparing the relationship between the United States and Canada to the relationship between Russia and Ukraine has no merit. NATO was founded because of Soviet aggression and expansionism, which became very clear with Stalin’s actions at the end of World War II. Once liberated from the horror of Soviet occupation and influence, Romania, Hungary and the Baltic states eagerly joined the organization in order to prevent exactly the kind of aggression we see in Ukraine today. today.
If, to use the example of Reverend Kakos, the United States had acted towards Canada as the USSR and Putin have acted and are acting towards Eastern Europe, then Canada would of course be justified in adhering to an entirely defensive pact.
Having lived and worked in the former USSR for three years between 1977 and 1990, I know only too well the mindset of leaders like Vladimir Putin and the misery of the Soviet-style dictatorship he created. He is the embodiment of evil. By establishing false equivalences, Western thinkers like Reverend Kakos, however well-intentioned, are actually contributing to Russian aggression rather than deterring it.
Perhaps Reverend Kakos should recognize the difference between our admittedly flawed foreign policy and the sheer evil of Russia.
Roland Merullo
Williamsburg
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