Why are we letting Putin kill Ukrainians?
Dear Editor:
I have written many articles over the years and have been kept busy with things that need fixing in my own country of Newfoundland and Labrador (never did consider myself a Canadian). These days I am having a problem sleeping because of what is happening in Ukraine. While the world stands by and watches innocent people, woman and children being slaughtered by a madman in Russia, all they do is play politics.
I am old enough to remember the second World War caused by another madman, Adolph Hitler. When going to school in Lushes Bight, there were pictures of all kinds of airplanes on the wall and we were told if we saw one, we were to see what kind they were and report them to the authorities. Although the war was a long ways away, we were not sheltered from Hitler’s reach as was proven with a hit on Bell Island by a German sub and a battle in the Straits of Belle Isle which was witnessed by fishermen from Lushes Bight who were fishing at Belle Isle.
My father died at an early age from tuberculosis and mom was left with two small children. I heard her say many times, “If uncle John had not died in the war, we would have been all right.” My dad had two brothers, Leslie and John Frederick Bartlett who went to war to fight for our so-called freedom we have today. Uncle John got killed in Germany. After the war my mom did marry again to Dorman Slade, another veteran person who entered the Forestry in Scotland to help the war efforts. He passed away one year later from cancer. I can remember the day the war ended the same as if it was yesterday. I was 9 years old and it was the first time I fired a gun which was held by my grandfather in celebration of the end of the war. That gives me the right to say what I am saying now if the newspapers will give me the space.
We have two organizations that I’m aware of that were put in place after World War 2 to make sure that it would never happen again, the NATO group and the United Nations.
Yet today they are allowing a madman who was allowed to govern Russia and change every rule to make sure he could remain in power and do what he like as has been proven these last few years. The world watched his buildup of troops and military vehicles on the border with Ukraine and all the so-called experts who are supposed to keep the world safe were saying we don’t believe he will do it. What did they expect him to do? Well, it has happened and what is being done? Press statements and condemnations, but they are letting him keep killing woman and children every single day. Putin will not stop, he can’t, he will lose face and to a person like Putin, like his predecessor Hitler, he will destroy even his own people to satisfy his ego.
My uncle John and millions of others who gave their lives for us must be rolling over in their graves and wondering was it worth it. I am writing this with a heavy heart and wondering if by the time this is published will it be all over. Will Putin have won, leaving a country destroyed and the rest of us to live in shame the rest of our lives, or to say, “Oh well, it wasn’t us.”
(Ret.) Capt. Wilfred Bartlett
CBS