BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Canada sanctions Putin, but Ukraine calls for no-fly zone against Russian bombardment,' published on Feb. 25.
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It is not enough for Western leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or U.S. President Joe Biden to threaten Russia with mere financial sanctions after it threatened to attack Western nations with nuclear weapons over the sanctions levied against it. Those sanctions are a slap on the face and a slow economic death meant to retaliate for Russia's genocidal threats and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Biden's State of the Union address left many Ukraine supporters visibly outraged as the president touted a prescription payment plan, a national electric vehicle recharging grid, and a plan to make high-speed internet affordable for all Americans. In fact, he ignored Ukraine and made trivial platitudes about the country's brave souls.
Where Biden's impotence against Russia clearly shined, Trudeau's declamations against its leader Vladimir Putin seemed to me the first time a Canadian leader actually proved more determined than an American president.
Trudeau is dispatching more troops to Eastern Europe and heavier weapons for Ukraine's military. However relative these actions may be, there remains the distinct possibility that a global war will erupt as a result of Putin's threats, especially since Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko promised to send his forces to help with the Ukraine invasion.
Lukashenko, not a stable man either, threatened to send for Russian nukes and use them against the West.
The situation is such that a military intervention by NATO and others may be required to stop Putin. CNN's military commentators have observed operational errors and incompetence that are shedding the notion of Russia as a powerful adversary.
And although Ukraine's military success is proof of their excellent training, determination and capabilities, their attacker remains one of the world's strongest powers.
If Russia isn't stopped, the likelihood remains they could use those nuclear weapons or other unsavoury devices to carry out its genocidal ambition. At the least, Putin could assemble a group of supporters like Belarus and Lukashenko who will trigger a global war with little or no provocation.
Putin is now the greatest danger to the survival of the world's population, or has the potential to be. The fact that China isn't supporting him so loudly is a sign, too.
Russia may never be as vulnerable again. But how that military action should be executed is the question.
Christopher Mansour
Barrie
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