To the Editor:

A year ago, Russian troops were amassed on the borders of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin said he was not going to invade that nation. And then he did.

Nearly a year later, Russian military forces continue his attempt to subjugate the much smaller, weaker Ukraine. We have all watched this travesty evolve.

I listen to all sides debate who is justified, who is to blame, why it happened, etc. Recently, at the Bethlehem Public Library, I attended a talk by Scott Ritter, formerly a hero for disputing claims that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction.

But, at his talk, Ritter stormed and pounded his fists on the table like a bully. To me, the talk sounded like a canned presentation of Russian propaganda. Although he had some valid points mixed in, Ritter now seems to be an apologist for Putin and his monstrous, illegal invasion.

I am not a pacifist, but I try to be nonviolent. I want peace. Even so, if an army came to annihilate my town I would resist.

I believe the people of Ukraine, a sovereign nation, have every right to choose to defend themselves and a right to the tools to do so. It is a horrific situation.

I detest war; most people do. I despise the military industrial complex, weapon sales, and war profiteers. If empty warhead criminal leaders would just stay in their own lane and stop trying to build empires and steal resources we would all do better. I will never forgive President George W. Bush for invading Iraq.

Now this war of aggression by Russia is affecting most of the world, worsening starvation, contaminating the land, fueling climate change, and traumatizing a generation in Ukraine. Imagine the fossil fuels used transporting all this equipment.

And we have the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, people starving and freezing in all these affected regions including Ukraine, a debt crisis, worsening poverty, tensions rising around the world, and a war siphoning off resources.

Innocent voiceless species, wildlife, plants, air, water, children have no voice in the destruction of the planet by humans.

War is dead. Warmongers are sick, deranged individuals and need to be locked up.

There are more of us common folk. We all need peace, to live and work for the better good of all, to defend the planet and the voiceless.

But, instead, we humans are creating mass extinction. If we didn’t waste everything on war, we could build a safer infrastructure; be ready to help in a crisis; focus on education, healthy food, healthcare, green energy, and so much more. 

We need an international organization like the United Nations and an enforceable mandate that every nation join to maintain peace and work out issues in a civil, nonviolent manner. Russia should negotiate not annihilate; Russia should get out of Ukraine.

We must negotiate and build peace treaties and rein in the warmongers everywhere. We are destroying the beautiful Earth and each other. This is insane.

Wendy J. Dwyer, RN, BS

Albany