LETTER: Langley doctor wants world leaders to work towards peace for Ukraine

Dear Editor,

Now in the third week of the Russian war on Ukraine, 100 refugees cross into Poland every minute. The horror and hell that is war comes to our living rooms in controlled portions via TV whenever we choose to allow it to interrupt our daily lives. But no one should have to experience war more viscerally, continuously or while looking into the face of death as is the reality for forty million people right now. If you are Ukrainian living in Canada or have fled a conflict zone, the experience is far less virtual than it is for many of us.

It seems a desecration to even comment on suffering from the safety and comfort of a home thousands of miles away. It may be worse to be silent.

What Putin is doing is truly monstrous. But it is a fallacy to believe that all others are on the side of the angels. Western nations have fertilized, seeded and watered enmity with Russia. There were 16 NATO nations in ‘91 after the USSR had come apart. The U.S. and allied states. promised Gorbachev that ” not one inch ” would NATO expand towards Russia. As it frequently does, the U.S. spoke with forked tongue and today there are 30 member nations in NATO, several of them on Russia’s very doorstep. Putin pulls the levers in this war which the West has played a leading role in creating.

Many feel that more weapons and bomber jets are part of the solution and that reinforcing Ukraine’s military power will be a good thing. There is a better way. It is not by increasing Ukraine’s weaponry so as to lessen the gap between belligerent Russian killing and destructive force compared to the invaded nation Ukraine. There was no shortage of weapons in World War 2. Fifty to seventy million people were killed. It was not a success.

There is a better way. Despite the enormous courage and sacrifice shown by President Zelensky and his citizens, it is impossible to attain peace, to preserve life, to have Ukrainians remain in their homes, by using or acquiring the same weapons possessed by Putin. Only non-violence and non-cooperation has the power to defeat warmongers without destroying ourselves and others . This is a power not limited to men of fighting age but available to men and women of all ages. It involves growing the march of unarmed citizens that we witnessed as Russian soldiers backed away from them while shooting over their heads.

It involves growing the evident humanity of some Russian troops which will be choked if they are fired upon in violent resistance. It requires the bravery of the man who jumped on the advancing Russian tank to wave his nation’s flag, and it involves the last full measure of sacrifice for some because there is no risk free option in opposing evil.

We who watch from a safe (so far) distance must take action that requires a sort of bravery on a lesser scale. Is it worth the lives of Ukrainians that Western nations abandon our self-righteousness especially in our political postures and negotiations ? Is it worth their lives that we assume some humility and open a space for peace, a space that recognizes wrongdoing on the part of the West, a space that allows for the Russian administration to avoid shouldering our culpability on top of its own?

To this end I will fast the first three days of April.

What a powerful message it would send to Russia if leaders on this continent and in Europe were to publicly proclaim a fast in humility and acknowledgement of our own culpability. That would be as powerful as a fleet of F-35 bomber jets but a force for healing and peace rather than for hate and destruction.

Do we have leaders with the courage and love required for that?

Call for it and let us discover. Meanwhile there is endless work to be done in providing humanitarian assistance.

Dr. Brendan Martin, Langley City

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• READ MORE: War in Ukraine will take global economic toll

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