Is it wise the way Western leaders are now reacting to Putin’s actions?

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Is it wise the way Western leaders are now reacting to Putin’s actions? Hasn’t history taught us lessons?

The consequences of the severe economic and other reprisals of the Treaty of Versailles allowed Hitler to bring an entire nation with him. Now the German government suddenly announces a drastic expansion of the army. Doesn’t this play into Putin’s hands at home? After all, he uses the old wound of the Nazi invasion of Russia by accusing Ukraine of nazification.

It has rightly been said in this newspaper: Putin speaks the language of fear. “Fear of men is a snare,” says the Bible book of Proverbs. When Western leaders unconsciously react out of fear, with a lot of display of power, there is a danger that fuel will be added to the fire, the crisis will get worse and we will end up in a spiral of violence. It is better that the Ukrainian army stands firm and negotiations take place. Fortunately, the courageous president of Ukraine is not intimidated. He does not flee, but remains at his post.

This time calls for wisdom and an effort to better understand the position of the adversary, and then act.

Harm-Jan InkelaarOudenbosch

Carnival

I see with horror that carnival brawl on television and the excuse to celebrate it . Arguments: we haven’t had a carnival in two years and are ready and yes, we are really thinking about Ukraine. But yes, we can be working on this again after Wednesday.

How selfish and short-term thinking. The money spent for carnival would have been better donated to Ukraine. And to think of corona that rears up again? As far as I’m concerned, everyone who has celebrated carnival will remain in quarantine for a month. But yes, that will probably not be maintainable, too many people.

Wilma HendriksWooden

Carnival (2)

Is celebrating carnival still appropriate? You can also ask this question to all those tens of thousands of people who are going skiing this week in countries much closer to Kiev. They are also available in the après-ski bar in the evenings. Or all the young people who were dancing until early in the morning in the many nightclubs throughout the Netherlands.

In addition, I do not think that Putin would have stopped his invasion if he heard that we would no longer party in protest. Finally, and most importantly, the situation is definitely in everyone’s mind.

That is precisely why I decided to go to the center of Oeteldonk. Show that I’m not afraid or let it scare me. Carnival celebrates the freedom and relativity of life. That is the strongest protest. And, okay, I deliberately left the vodka this year.

Lenard SchoonenDen Bosch

After the war

Anyone who is ‘after the war’ and believed that this would always remain the case, now suddenly realizes that he or she could suddenly turn out to be ‘from before the war’.

Nico de MillianoNijmegen

Measures

Yes, we are going to defeat Putin with the same measures that we used to defeat Syrian President Bashar al Assad and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. And with our naivety, of course.

Gerardo CorredorMurcia (Spain)

Learned

There will come a time when the war in Ukraine will somehow end. This could be through a regime change in Kiev or through a Russian ‘tactical withdrawal’, goal achieved. Shall we agree now that we will not act as if nothing happened? Shall we agree that we will not embrace Russia again and take Putin at his word? Shall we agree that sanctions really remain sanctions until he is gone? Shall we agree not to withdraw our principles for gas? In short, agree that we have learned from what is going on now?

Joop van den BergHaastrecht

Solidarity

I read that we have to accept gas prices out of solidarity with Ukraine. Then I cancel my subscription de Volkskrant out of solidarity with Ukraine. A dime can only be spent once.

Peter van der GaastAmsterdam

New Dimension

Putin has added a whole new dimension to the notion of ‘Russian roulette’.

Bart FischerLeusden