To the Editor:
Re “U.S. and Russia Eye Thaw in Relations as Diplomats Meet” (entrance web page, Feb. 19) and “Zelensky Urges ‘More Truth’ After Trump Suggests Ukraine Started the War” (nytimes.com, Feb. 19):
President Trump is now blatantly and irresponsibly blaming Ukraine for the Ukraine warfare — “It is best to have by no means began it” — as he seeks widespread trigger with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Mr. Trump’s headlong plunge into ending the warfare has all of the indicators of novice diplomacy, with doubtlessly destabilizing penalties for america, Ukraine and total European safety.
His swiftly organized summitry might primarily dictate, together with Mr. Putin, phrases for a probable unacceptable peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that relegates Ukraine and NATO allies to junior standing.
It seems to be the president’s opening salvo in an unmistakable shift in American overseas coverage focus away from Europe whereas strengthening ties with Mr. Putin. The president is clearly upending an 80-year interval of European stability, held collectively by American ensures.
Mr. Trump’s shortsighted overseas coverage might embolden Mr. Putin sooner or later to once more attempt to incorporate a much less safe Ukraine into Russia and threaten a demoralized and weakened NATO as America disengages.
A reasonably negotiated finish to the Ukraine warfare — with strong safety ensures — would result in that nation’s rebirth. However Ukraine and the remainder of Europe will all the time want an American safety blanket, one thing they sadly could also be about to lose, hopefully to get it again in a post-Trump world.
Roger Hirschberg
South Burlington, Vt.
To the Editor:
There shouldn’t be an excessive amount of shock over President Trump’s resetting relations with Vladimir Putin. In spite of everything, Mr. Putin’s rule over Russia is far more to Mr. Trump’s liking than that of the democratic governments of the NATO nations.
His admiration for dictators is properly documented!
Doris Fenig
Boca Raton, Fla.
To the Editor:
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, america and its Western allies have pursued a coverage of extra warfare fairly than try to attain a peaceable settlement.
I’m no fan of Donald Trump, and didn’t voted for him for president, however I do really feel that whereas it could appear messy, he’s no less than attempting to finish the warfare.
John A. Viteritti
Laurel, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Throughout a current interview on Ukrainian community TV, I used to be requested a sweeping query: “What message does America have to find out about Ukraine at this second of just about three years underneath siege?”
As a Ukrainian American who was born and grew up in america, I wasn’t positive I had the vocabulary, not to mention the perception, to reply that query, however I summoned what I might. People have to see and know that Ukraine is greater than destruction and casualties.
Our present president, vice chairman and secretary of protection haven’t seen how stunning the nation nonetheless is regardless of all of the bombing. They should notice that Ukrainians are combating so tenaciously not simply to defend borders but in addition to guard their very land, their very soil, which has nurtured the world with its grain exports for hundreds of years.
This very land has been ravaged by its neighbor to the north not simply within the present warfare however for hundreds of years as properly: the land grabs of the Russian Empire, the pressured hunger (Holodomor) of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians within the Nineteen Thirties, vulgar industrialization by the Soviets and the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in 1986.
Russia sees Ukraine’s various land and its pluralistic inhabitants merely as assets to plunder. Repeatedly, it has proved itself succesful solely of destroying Ukraine and killing its residents. Ukrainians know this historical past of invasion and destruction not simply mentally however viscerally.
Seeing the fantastic thing about its land and studying this historical past, U.S. leaders would possibly comprehend merely this: Solely Ukrainians might be entrusted to look after Ukraine, the land they love and nurture as sacred.
Marika Kuzma
Madison, Conn.
The author is an emerita professor of music on the College of California, Berkeley, and the creator of “Carols of Birds, Bells and Sacred Hymns From Ukraine.”
The Republican Assault on Larger Schooling
To the Editor:
Re “The G.O.P.’s Next Target: Academia,” by Michelle Goldberg (column, Feb. 15):
We share Ms. Goldberg’s concern concerning the Trump administration’s “deep hostility to the complete educational enterprise.” As she factors out, the trouble to slash reimbursements for the oblique prices of scientific analysis will make it financially prohibitive for many faculties and universities to pursue the sorts of scientific discoveries which have lengthy “fueled American scientific and technological dominance.”
This assault on fundamental science is only one part of a a lot bigger takedown of upper training. The Trump administration and its allies in Congress additionally search an enormous enhance within the excise tax on faculties and universities with giant endowments; new taxes on pupil scholarships; hyperpartisan investigations of establishments suspected of continuous to pursue variety, fairness and inclusion objectives; and the diminution or abolition of the Division of Schooling.
The total value of undermining American larger training gained’t be felt for a few years. On this respect, it resembles the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth and its overseas help applications. Whereas the fast value in lives, U.S. nationwide safety and “gentle energy” are huge, the complete influence will change into obvious solely years from now, as China and different nations fill the void we’ve left.
When the invoice comes due, we are going to all need to pay it.
Glenn Altschuler
David Wippman
Dr. Altschuler is an emeritus professor of American research at Cornell College. Mr. Wippman is president emeritus of Hamilton School.
A Former Watergate Prosecutor, on the Eric Adams Case
To the Editor:
Re “All the President’s Sock Puppets,” by Daniel Richman (Opinion visitor essay, Feb. 17):
Kudos to Mr. Richman for lauding the prosecutors Danielle Sassoon and Hagan Scotten for his or her brave refusal to hold out the craven and legally indefensible order of the performing deputy legal professional normal, Emil Bove, to dismiss the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams of New York.
Their reasoned rejection of Mr. Bove’s order and the rationale he cited to help it have been within the highest custom of the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, with its fame for being apolitical and incorruptible.
Mr. Bove’s bad-faith order is made worse by hypocrisy: As an assistant U.S. legal professional within the Southern District, Mr. Bove was desirous to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters. However that was earlier than he turned one of many president’s minions.
Mr. Bove, like Robert Bork, who in 1973 carried out President Richard M. Nixon’s order to fireside the Watergate particular prosecutor Archibald Cox within the notorious Saturday Evening Bloodbath, has consigned his fame to the dustbin of historical past. Legal professional Basic Elliot Richardson and Deputy Legal professional Basic William Ruckelshaus, each Republicans, cemented their reputations for integrity and righteousness by refusing to hold out Mr. Nixon’s order.
Richard Ben-Veniste
Washington
The author, a former assistant U.S. legal professional within the Southern District of New York, was an assistant particular prosecutor on the Watergate Activity Pressure.
