Putin needs clear military message

DR ERROL N BENJAMIN

I THANK the EU ambassador and his associates for showing interest in my letter in which I explored the issue of the absence of any significant direct military action from the West while Ukraine burns. This was a welcome birthday gift this Saturday as it is not often I receive any response on any issues I may pen to the editor.

Sadly though they failed to appreciate my perspective on this issue as much I appreciate theirs. Admittedly there were two historical inaccuracies in the letter as they pointed out, for which I apologise, one about Anne Frank and her being Dutch instead of Belgian and another about the Czech Republic. But Anne Frank is an enduring symbol to the resistance against Hitler and Czechoslovakia would have been part of Russia’s hegemonic quest, all part of the evolving argument I would have been attempting got make.

But more critically they used all the other efforts of the West to counter Putin as a way of negating my argument of direct military intervention or some semblance of it in Ukraine when that country needs it the most. My letter acknowledges the dangers of nuclear war and also the usefulness of sanctions and military assistance as from England et al, but such assistance located against the imminent physical danger Ukraine faces and possible destruction. Even a show of direct intervention would have acted as a possible deterrence to Putin.

However, with the absolute “no, no” about the no-fly zone and currently the thumbs down to the Polish assistance with Migs via Germany, are they not a clear message to Putin that he can advance with impunity?

The perspective of how much is being done to help Ukraine is well taken but I am hoping the members of the august EU delegation will not see my own as erroneous and wrong simply because it suggests a military response to Putin. Under the circumstances, with Ukraine on the doorstep of impending physical demise, even as we wait for sanctions et al to work, Putin needs to get a clear military message to deter him.