Hold Russia accountable

Re: “Feeding a war that cannot be won” Jan. 8 letter to the editor

If the retired university lecturer’s letter is indicative of the curriculum at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies, then DU should change the name of the school to the Neville Chamberlain School of Appeasement.

Putin’s Russia seized the Crimea and the Donbas regions of Ukraine because the West failed to act, just as Hitler took the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in pre-world War II. If the letter writer had been alive in 1944, he probably would have written that the Allies should negotiate for peace rather than undertake the invasion of France and liberate occupied Europe.

In a Washington Post opinion piece on Jan. 7, DU graduate and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates both state that “any negotiated cease-fire would leave Russian forces in a strong position to resume their invasion whenever they are ready. That is unacceptable.”

Ukraine’s territory must be restored, and the Russians must be held accountable for the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure and the war crimes committed against the people of Ukraine.

— Jim Blugerman, Georgetown

Wars used to be fought soldier against soldier. Now, as with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the main attack is killing civilians, and destroying their homes and commercial structures. How cowardly!

In all of history, Russia has had oppressive governments. It continues with the dastardly, devil despot Vladimir Putin. Since the czars, Russian governments don’t last long. Putin won’t, either.

We should launch a massive propaganda campaign aimed at the Russian people, encouraging them to pursue a real democracy.

— James T. Watson,

Highlands Ranch