The price of freedom
Could Ukraine become another Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan for us? Should we send armed forces to fight the Russians?
Each war is similar and different. But the proven historical truth is that it is easy to get into a war but hard to get out.
People think that starting small is the easy way to minimize casualties and pull out if need be. But once our soldiers die, it actually becomes much more difficult for peace, because then we think, “they cannot have died in vain.”
We have to ask ourselves how many deaths are we willing to risk for another war? How many dead is the price of freedom?
Even if we devastated Russian forces in Ukraine, what do you think nuclear-powered Vladimir Putin would threaten then?
On the other ugly hand, peace and freedom only happen when enough people are willing to kill and die for it.
Leighton Loo
Mililani, Oahu
Make U.N. stronger
Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution last month that would have demanded that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops, a move several council members said was deplorable, but inevitable, because (a) by design, member nations on the Security Council are immune to any collective actions by the rest of the member nations because each has a veto vote; or (b) because Russian has not been expelled from the Security Council for unacceptable behavior.
Russia can fight a war with the U.S., but it cannot fight the rest of the world.
The U.N. needs to continue evolving. I studied with Georg Schwartenberger at the University of Vienna in the 1970s, the man who designed the U.N. He always said the U.N. must evolve over time in order to remain empowered to avoid future “world wars” and serious regional conflicts.
We have not continued the process of improving the U.N., and we need to do so now. Ultimately, it needs to be able to force rogue nations to live peacefully or be stopped by force.
I say this as someone who is 50% Russian. I know “my people.” If the world collectively stood against Putin he would suffer a death from “natural causes,” just as the previous leader of North Korea did.
As we Russians say, “it is only natural that he would die in such circumstance.” His life would be honored, and we all could move on.
Give peace a chance.
Carl Oguss
Hilo
