Dear Editor,
Perhaps partly because I’m still a relatively active retiree and pensioner, for all of the 50-plus days of Putin’s Russian brutal invasion of his neighbouring Ukraine, I have been glued to various international television channels, viewing man’s inhumanity to man actually taking place in this twenty-first century 2022!
Sometimes the Russian Army’s savagery, inspired by Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin, seems surreal. As in a military war movie. But I come back to the very real reality of the bombing, shelling, shooting, rape-and-torture as weapons of war; military murder of babies, children and seniors; threats made, some executed, to use cluster-bombs, nuclear and chemical weapons. I, thousands of peaceful miles distant, ask the universal question: why?
Who is Putin? What makes him tick? Wasn’t he once human? Even as a former KGB Russian Spy Boss? What motivated this objective – this obvious determination – to obliterate Ukraine as a nation? Would he actually wish a World War III which none can “win”?
Even before the late March invasion, when Putin was busy lying about the role of thousands of his troops on Ukraine’s borders, knowledgeables and analysts speculated about his reasons: he feared Ukraine’s bid to become a NATO member and active European Union ally, being on Russia’s doorstep; he dreams of annexing more Ukraine territory as the gateway to his delusional dream of re-building some Russian/Soviet-era “Union”; he envies Ukraine’s land mass as a producer of wheat and other vital consumer items for all of Europe, rivalling Russian enterprise.
Whatever his reasons, the world seems to just be watching and revelling in real-time television reportage as it/we witness Caucasian-non-black modern-day military savagery. I think of other conflicts of recent vintage from Rwanda to Syria and Iraq and Sudan/Yemen etc etc and I conclude that man’s inhumanity never ended with the two World Wars.
The consequences of Putin’s invasion include a new US/Europe/ NATO alliance which was waning; there is also economic fallout still to be experienced – from money markets to consumer-item shortages.
Guyanese should take note. Whilst no invasion must be dared here now, Putin has put all vulnerable states on alert.
Yours faithfully,
Allan Arthur Fenty
