Ugly replay of Hitler's gameplan
Watching the horror of Russia's invasion of Ukraine — and the criminal bombing of civilians — it's tempting to extend the comparisons with Adolf Hitler to note the striking similarity in Putin's gameplan between Hitler and Mussolini's campaign in support of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in
the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.
Stukas and blitzkrieg then got a good workout to remove the kinks in the strategy and get in some practice before the various invasions of 1939 and thereafter. Roll forward to 2014 when Putin's aerial butchery got a similar brutal rehearsal in Syria, with an equally hideous toll on Syrian civilians, to bolster his Franco, Assad. Poor Ukraine.
A lot of tut-tutting and oblique money and aid but no one coming into the playground to help the victim against the bully. Wasn't this what treaties and coalitions of support were meant for? Isn't this why Ukraine, Georgia and others yearned for some Nato buddies?
Long-term sanctions, confiscating oligarchs' yachts and rebuking Putin in the media aren't going to stop the savagery and all the innocent Ukrainians dying. And ultimately they just punish the poor Russian in the street. What's the UN for? Have we made no progress since 1945?
Ron Murray, Ellerslie.
Lies fly in wartime
It would seem that the first casualty of war is the truth. The Russian populace has been told how Ukraine is being run by Nazis and other various propaganda lies. We were told we had to wage war on Vietnam to stop communism, but the biggest lie we were told by the US and Britain was that Iraqis had many weapons of mass destruction. This then justified the bombing and mass killing of thousands of Iraqi civilians and the following destruction of their country. Did we protest or call out the war crimes of Bush and Blair? I think they went on to be popular statesmen.
Vince West, Milford.
Sanctions can hit hard
Feature writer Nicholas Khoo oddly suggests (NZ Herald, March 4), "The power of economic sanctions has been exaggerated", and "Do not assume sanctions will work well, won't be watered down and even abandoned".
Russian president Vladimir Putin has long endeavoured to split Nato and democracies but his invasion of Ukraine galvanised the free world into a united front which initiated sanctions with immediate calamitous impact, the Russian ruble reduced to junk status and inflation and food prices skyrocketing, the country in free fall.
Having been emboldened by his atrocities in Syria, Putin felt invincible, Ukraine, however, will be his nemesis, his demise inevitable as Russia's economy implodes. Make no mistake, sanctions can be "a deadly weapon", as time will tell.
P. J. Edmondson, Tauranga.
Booster doubts
Your editorial (Weekend Herald, March 5) suggests "... is the cohort of 938,000 people who are eligible for the vaccine booster but haven't yet taken it up ... "
It might be a lot worse than stated. The Government may have no idea how many people have taken it up. When my wife and I received our boosters on December 30, I thanked the nurse and saw that she was busy on her equipment and was not noting our names in any documents/book.
It was a casual walk-up, and no appointment details had been taken as far as I could see. I expressed my surprise and was ignored, so I wrote the date on my "Covid-19 Vaccine Record Card" ... so that at least we had a record of the booster jab. If others had this experience, who knows how many of us did, or did not, get boosters?
Brian Wilson, Windsor Park.
Police treatment
I am disgusted that people would throw excrement, bricks, and abuse, etc at our police who were only doing their job.
I am ashamed of people who would desecrate our war memorial, threaten the press and members of the public because they didn't have the same opinion as them. I am however proud that regardless of the hardships some have had to endure, the majority still believe in the rule of law, respect for our politicians, and think about others rather than themselves.
To the protesters, respect the goals you have set, then you have more chance of attaining them.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
