Ukraine not a U.S. problem

OPINION:

Watching President Joe Biden with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talking tough and silly posturing on the situation in Ukraine made me think of my dad (“Biden vows to spike German pipeline if Russia strikes Ukraine,” Web, Feb. 7).

My father, recently buried at Arlington National Cemetery, was a German prisoner of war during World War II. He was rescued by the Soviets, many of whom were women. he remembered them as having been glad to meet the Americans, solicitous of their depleted physical conditions and generous in sharing their vodka, rations and high spirits. He said the Soviet soldiers all wore black arm bands, genuinely grieving the recent death of President Roosevelt.

Until his death, my father was a hard-nosed, conservative Republican; but he always held the Soviets and Russians in high regard, believing much of the Cold War had been contrived and misguided. He never trusted the Germans.

Were my dad alive today and looking at the situation in Ukraine, he, like me, would be of the opinion that if the Russians want to run that failed, corrupt country, fine. Not our problem. Vladimir Putin may well be a ruthless autocrat running a kleptocratic government, but the Russians are a first-class nuclear power and, like the United States, believe they get to have great influence over the nations bordering their frontiers. And they’re right about that.

President Biden recognizes the reality of the Ukraine situation. He admitted as much at his recent news conference. He’s not going to use American military power to kill Russian soldiers, whatever the level of ultimate Russian incursion into Ukraine. Nor, of course, should he. (Nor will the gas-hungry, helmet-donating Germans be killing any Russians in defense of Ukraine.)

Putin will install his puppet government in Ukraine, some Russian oligarchs will have a harder time visiting their mistresses in Paris, the Germans will get their natural gas and this crisis will be soon forgotten. Next up: Taiwan.

JON KETZNER

Cumberland, Md.