Dear Editor,
The Ukraine mess, we brought it on ourselves!
It was the mischievous, malicious meddling by leaders of the western powers trying to inveigle the Ukraine into joining NATO and the European Union that did it. They must have known that Russia would feel threatened by this, but through hubris or stupidity, thought they could get away with it. They badly underestimated Mr. Putin.
The trouble escalated rapidly when the first act of the unelected new Ukraine Parliament was to strike out Russian as one of the country’s official languages. With ethnic Russians a strong majority in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, small wonder that Putin felt a need to defend them.
Now we bluster about “illegal invasion” and threaten with toothless sanctions.
If Russian substantial ethnic majorities, feeling under attack by their government, wish to separate and rejoin their Motherland, they surely have a right to do so.
We started this mess, now we have to learn how to live with it.
Ed Clarke
Ponoka