2 days Ago By Chicago Tribune
I am disheartened that the U.S. has become an unstable ally to countries with whom we have had long and productive relationships.
It’s not just President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on our closest neighbors and trading partners or making juvenile threats that we will take over Greenland and the Panama Canal and make Canada our 51st state.Now our government is stepping away from our NATO and European allies and apparently blocking their participation in talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Negotiations to end Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine must include the Ukrainians and the European Union.
The U.S. does best when we stand with our allies rather than abandon them.
We are ultimately far weaker alone than with our friends.— Peter Okkema, La GrangeDon’t reward RussiaRussia started the war in Ukraine. So why reward it or any other country by allowing it to profit from the war?I believe Russia should cede some of its territory to Ukraine and pay for the restoration of the country.
— Jeanette Mehr, LibertyvilleNorway is a targetUkraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy rightly highlighted an ominous, though likely, outcome of capitulation to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands to end the conflict in Ukraine: Russia could then regroup and continue conquests in the Baltics and Poland. Having traveled to Scandinavia in the past few months, I fear there is another likely target few are yet talking about — Norway. Norway possesses great energy resources, and it shares a common border with Russia.
Norway would be a great gift from Putin to his oligarchs.Whatever unilateral agreement President Donald Trump achieves with Russia, it needs to include protection from future expansion.— Roger Gallentine, GenevaGiving store awayLet’s get serious.
To do what he is doing in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken an existing agreement to maintain Ukraine’s territorial integrity and enough international norms to richly deserve indictment as a war criminal. He doesn’t care. The only thing that will stop him is what has always stopped the territorial ambitions of the occupant of the Kremlin: NATO.
I don’t know why President Donald Trump thinks that he is a great dealmaker when he has a habit of giving the store away at the start. As when he moved the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and received nothing in return, his representative is proposing that a deal for Russia includes keeping all of the territory that it has stolen and keeping Ukraine out of NATO without paying a price for its bloody aggression. Russia keeping the territory that it has annexed should have NATO membership for Ukraine attached to it.
I read a couple of years ago that Putin wanted to go back to a time when representatives of the great powers would gather around a map on a table and decide how things would be for the rest of the world. I think that the proposed negotiations about Ukraine between Trump and Putin, which Europe, including Ukraine, has been excluded from so far, might be the start of something like this. I see Trump as wanting to be a member of the biggest gang.
Is this a first step to allying the United States with Russia with the idea that adding one more member, Russia’s ally China, would result in a combination that would be unchallengeable by the rest of the world?A short time ago, this would have been unthinkable because of the differing political philosophies, but Trump’s transactional nature, combined with his admiration of strongmen and disdain for democracy, makes it entirely plausible.— Curt Fredrikson, Mokena, IllinoisMissed opportunitiesIn Russia and Ukraine, a major portion of the population follows Orthodox Christianity. With these similar beliefs and moral values, however, they are not working together to address common goals and problems.
The Republicans and Democrats in our country have this same opportunity but also do not capitalize on it. Both seem to be devoted to the blame game instead of addressing common problems with joint solutions correcting or minimizing them.The four countries could set the example for others that also have similar but different problems along with opportunities.
Right now, in our country, we have a lot of opportunities for working together.— Mike Krauss, Wayne, IllinoisCost of corruptionThanks for your opinion pieces on former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, especially David Greising’s column (“Michael Madigan and Rod Blagojevich were products of a culture that tolerates lawlessness,” Feb.
14).I’m wondering: How much are Chicago’s and Illinois’ financial problems due to corruption? The total amount of money lost probably couldn’t be calculated. But could the Tribune provide examples of specific amounts lost through particular examples of corruption?Also, thank you for the recent series on corruption that has occurred over many years (“Culture of corruption”).
It is good to have that whole picture.— Eleanor Hall, ChicagoFuture ambassador?Former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan is now a convicted felon. Does that qualify him for an ambassadorship?— Mark C.
Page, Tinley ParkNot ‘everyday politics’Regarding the op-ed “Rod Blagojevich was prosecuted for everyday politics. He deserves his pardon” (Feb. 12): If former Gov.
Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to sell a U.S. Senate seat is “everyday politics” in Illinois, we need to change Illinois politics.
His actions were a crystal-clear attempt to put money in his pocket from what should have been a serious exploration of the best candidate for the job. Blagojevich’s sentence should not have been commuted, and he should not have been pardoned.The corrupt party here is not the prosecutor.
— Ron Tossey, GenevaRespect jury verdictIt is hard to figure who is more ridiculous and unjustified. Op-ed writer Leonard C. Goodman, who was former Gov.
Rod Blagojevich’s defense attorney and had every opportunity to convince 12 jurors of his client’s innocence, or the Tribune opinion team for deciding Goodman deserved another chance to convince the public of Blagojevich’s innocence some 16 years after his crimes and some 14 years after his conviction by 12 jurors?Both undermine the very American justice system they both have great responsibility to uphold. They should apologize to all Illinois citizens and to the jury of Blagojevich’s peers, who diligently did their duty at the trial by weighing all the evidence and convicting him.No, the fact the person who pardoned Blagojevich also pardoned hundreds of rioters, including those who injured police at the U.
S. Capitol, does not change the responsibility of Goodman or the Tribune opinion team to respect the outcome of the long-ago jury trial.— Anthony Miller, LaGrange ParkSkokie’s effortsThe article “Skokie residents frustrated by water main break response” (Feb.
16) states that a resident, Kathleen Schmidt, “said the village should have taken a more proactive approach to alerting the neighborhood.”“They should have notified everybody in the area, saying “Look, this is what’s happening,'” the Tribune reported her as saying.Although we commiserate with the residents who were affected by flooding in the area of the water main break and everybody affected by the water boil order, including us, we feel that the village of Skokie did an excellent job of communicating about the problem.
We received numerous alerts from the village via text messages, emails and recorded messages on our phones.For example, we received text messages (on both of our cellphones) four times on Friday and twice on Saturday. We also received emails 13 times on Friday and six times on Saturday.
We also received recorded messages by phone throughout Friday and Saturday.We thank the workers fixing the water main break; they deserve credit for their hard work.— Neil and Sheri Mermelstein, SkokieSubmit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.
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