Carol Nochajski: Patriots united

by Contributor | March 4, 2022 3:29 pm

Letter to the editor:

Patriots love country and freedom enough to risk one’s own life. Thousands of Russians, brave protestors and patriots, face enormous risk to their futures. Ukrainians show remarkable bravery and courage, dwarfed by Putin’s army, by resisting a giant bully.

Our current President Biden is grounded in quiet courage and strength, manifested in subtle ways. Absence of belligerence on his part may be taken as weakness, but Biden is careful and deliberate, not to antagonize the cruel, unhinged man, who uses vacuum bombs, condemned by international organizations, that vaporize humans. Alliances, weakened by the former president who often discussed withdrawal from NATO, strengthened.

All Americans need to support our president as he works to protect us and create a global resistance to Putin. Biden has allied with the G7 (seven wealthiest liberal democracies) the EU, and other partners and allies under extraordinary economic sanctions, making sanctions stronger than any one country could impose alone. Germany has relinquished ties to Russia by certifying the stop of a gas pipeline from Russia, imposed economic sanctions, sent weapons to Ukraine.

Neutral Switzerland joined the European sanctions on Russian assets and will help with the flow of refugees. Online hackers are disabling Russian government websites and pushing truthful information past Putin’s censored media. Consumers boycott Russian products.

A Ukrainian man of extraordinary courage and charisma, formerly disregarded by many as a real leader when elected president of his country, Volodymyr Zelensky is heroically leading, confronting Putin’s invaders. Family history shows Zelensky to be descended from a sole survivor of four Jewish brothers murdered by Nazis. Zelensky is the same man who had the courage to refuse a bribe from our past president.

What Ukrainians are enduring is heartbreaking, the risk of genocide is real, showing true patriotism to those who flaunt it. Brave husbands and fathers say goodbye to loved ones, their children, not knowing if they will ever see them again. Parents are sewing tags in their children’s clothes identifying their blood types. Elderly, being trained to make and throw Molotov cocktails and operate semi-automatic weapons. Putin is destroying two countries; Russians say “We didn’t choose this.”

We are in a moment like 9-11; past divisions cease to matter. Putin has decided that he wants Ukraine back. If successful, where will his greed stop? Will he want Alaska back, too? Do Americans need another Pearl Harbor or another world war to face whatever happens, united?

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/carol-nochajski-patriots-united/

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