With regard to the Clint Reach Memoranda (July 7, 2022):
Mr. Reach soft pedals Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine; the illegal seizure and occupation of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, by Russian forces; the abduction by Russia of Ukrainian citizens; atrocities, murders, and war crimes committed by Russian military forces against Ukrainian civilians; theft of Ukrainian grain as well as blocking its export with the stated purpose of creating world wide famine to leverage Russian political and military objectives (see Margarita Simonyan at St. Petersburg Economic Exchange Forum); the looting of Ukraine’s cultural artifacts — the crimes go on and on. Mr. Reach glosses over all these disasters as merely “the disputes that led to the war.” His viewpoint is so narrow he gives no thought or concern for how a pro-Russian outcome will embolden states like North Korea, China, among others, making our world far more dangerous. His muddled trajectories, theoretical outcomes, and stale détentes display a startling lack of insight, an inability for creative thinking, apparently unable to comprehend the consequences after Ukraine’s young “Golden Generation” have all been murdered and we are left with predacious Russia on OUR doorstep.
Instead, Mr. Reach’s “Memorandum” reads as an apologist’s attempt to bring parity on behalf of Russia. Mr. Reach brushes aside the cold fact of Russia’s one-sided invasion, illegal occupation, willful destruction of another country, Ukraine, which is a sovereign independent nation. Mr. Reach lightly dismisses Ukraine as having “risked this war” instead of recognizing that for Ukrainian citizens, this is NOT a war of choice: Ukrainians are defending their freedom and right to exist.
Propagating standard Russian propaganda, Mr. Reach, in line with Russian ideology, assumes some kind of legitimacy for Russia to crush and occupy Ukraine based upon a “shared” history. Our country also has a shared history with Russia and Russian threats which vowed to bury us.
Putin swapped the hammer and sickle for the double-headed eagle keeping the same dangerous ambitions extending to all of us, which will not stop with the conquest of Ukraine.
Readers, do not be deceived by Clint Reach.
Christine Schoppe, Santa Monica
