To the editor: Will the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the entire free world have blood on their hands by letting Russian President Vladimir Putin commit atrocities in Ukraine? This is the question Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is asking. (“Russia bombs maternity hospital amid evacuation effort, Ukraine says,” March 9)
Why is NATO not imposing a no-fly zone and providing the Polish fighter planes to the Ukrainian air force? The answer we get from the White House is that it could risk a wider war.
I believe the only way to prevent a wider war is to stop Putin now. It’s possible that World War II would have been avoided if Hitler had been stopped in 1938.
I commend President Biden for uniting NATO and imposing sanctions on Russia. These economic measures may work in the long run, but they are not stopping Putin from destroying Ukrainian cities and killing thousands of people. He must be stopped now, or we all will have blood on our hands.
Gerhard Pichel, Pacific Palisades
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To the editor: The nuclear bombs that exploded over Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 were like toys compared to what we have now.
Putin, a man who has no compunctions about murdering journalists, poisoning rivals and bombing civilians, is just itching to nuke someone. He won’t hesitate to do it at the slightest perceived provocation. That’s why we’re “only” using sanctions.
I can’t say for certain what weapons will be used in World War III, but I know what weapons will be used in World War IV: sticks and stones.
Bella Silverstein, Santa Clarita
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To the editor: We hold back physical involvement in defense of Ukraine against Russia because we don’t want to escalate. What kind of country does not see the bombing of a maternity hospital as an escalation?
Putin escalates; we wear blinders.
It is often wondered how the United States did not do anything to stop Hitler’s extermination of Jews, gays and Roma. Now we get to see it in person.
Drew Katzman, Van Nuys
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To the editor: With the Russian attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, the targeting of a nuclear power plant and the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian people, can we deduce that Putin’s idea of “liberation” is synonymous with killing?
“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it” was an absurd explanation of the butchery of the war in Vietnam. Will such homicidal thinking ever end in the world, or will it be the world’s end?
Ben Miles, Huntington Beach
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To the editor: Thank you, President Zelensky, for showing us what courage and devotion to freedom is. And thank you, President Putin, for showing us the dark lie behind authoritarianism.
Trump and his admirers like to think authoritarianism is about order and moral clarity. It’s really about refugees and suffering and death.
These two men have shown us very clearly who we are, and who we are not. They have taken an abstract discussion about political theory and turned it into concrete reality.
Peter Scofield, Corona del Mar
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
