Some people in Carroll County might not care about what’s been happening
between the countries of Ukraine and Russia. I believe they should, because
freedom throughout the world is everyone’s concern.
In February, I had the opportunity to be in
Ukraine for five days, and it was a sobering experience. You could hear the
air-raid sirens, see the flashes in the sky, and hear the explosions of Russian
missiles or drones being met by Ukrainian counter defenses. It certainly was
unnerving.
I was taken by a Ukrainian Nazarene pastor to a
cemetery in which hundreds of Ukrainian flags were flying, representing the
many graves that contained military personnel. On each grave were enlarged
color photos of these people, many still in their teens, who had died defending
their country.
On another day, he took me to a spot where we
saw destroyed Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers. At another
location, we saw junk piles of Ukrainian vehicles destroyed by Russian attacks.
One day we visited a memorial near an Orthodox church where the Russians had
executed 116 civilians, including women and children.
We also toured central Kyiv and viewed a
memorial which displayed hundreds of thousands of photos of Ukrainian people
who died in this senseless war. Most were so very young.
I relate just a few of my experiences on this
trip to say this: A peace treaty with Vladimir Putin would mean absolutely
nothing. Signing a treaty with him would be like Hitler signing a treaty. It
would be “just another piece of paper.”
If small areas of land are ceded to this
“Peter the Great wannabe,” he will be back for more eventually. And if it isn’t
him, it will be another thug from the ubiquitous Russian thugocracy. Who will
be next, Estonia, Lithuania Finland maybe?
As Neville Chamberlain’s “peace in our time”
still rings hollow today, so does any talk of a peace treaty. I hope our
present government remembers that people like this only respond to economic and
military strength, and nothing more.
God bless our Ukrainian brothers and sisters
in their fight for freedom from tyranny now and forevermore.
