To the Editor:
With regard to Mr. Halbruner’s piece, “A Troubled Spirit,” I ask what he would do.
I remember being a young soldier in Seoul, South Korea, in 1972 when I was approached by an elderly woman in a traditional dress who kept saying, “Miguk number Hana (America number one)” while pantomiming a machine gun and it finally dawned on me that she was from the countryside and was thanking me for American help during the Korean conflict.
The wounds from that war remain. We generally have reasons for going to war. In some cases, like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, perhaps questionable ones, but regardless of the reasons, it is the young men who die and the families who suffer.
I remember a time when a certain individual tried to dismantle NATO. Now, instead of being dismissed as obsolete, NATO and the entire world are standing together and saying “this brutality must not endure.”
Sadly, the Ukrainian people are taking the brunt of this conflict, literally fighting for freedom, democracy, and their lives. Putin has been called too big to fail and part of his calculation may have been his perception that Americans are weak.
When people cry that having to wear a mask to protect other people is an infringement on their “freedom,” perhaps he had a point. Whether we will have to put boots on the ground at this point is an open question. I pray not; however, this is a pivotal moment in human history.
Ukraine has been an independent nation for more than 30 years, and they wish to remain so, despite the meddling of certain individuals and Russian assets. Can America stay the course? We will see.
– JOHN HAIGIS, Dennisville
