While the cynic in me might think otherwise, I’m going to try to believe that most of the letter writers begging for capitulation to Vladimir Putin’s Russia are motivated by the sincere desire for world peace. An admirable wish if ever there was one. Unfortunately, in order for there to be a negotiated peace, both sides must sit down and negotiate.

So far, Putin and his autocratic rubber-stamp government in Moscow have shown no such inclination. Instead, they continue to launch drones, subsonic missiles and bombs at Ukrainian population centers, and recruit hundreds of thousands of more soldiers to throw into the war, including arming and training the dregs of the Russian prison system, then turning them loose onto the Ukrainian populace.

Asking Ukraine to stop fighting and negotiate while Russia pours men and ordnance into the battlefield is asking Ukraine to surrender.

I ask those seeking Ukrainian capitulation, if they think that would suddenly make Putin into Gandhi: Did Hitler stop after the Rhineland, the Sudentenland, Austria or Czechoslovakia? Did Putin stop after Transnistria, Ossetia, Abkahazia, Donetsk, Luhansk or Crimea?

I’m not saying that Putin is the new Hitler, but he’s certainly reading from a well-worn playbook of “take a little until you can take a lot and hope no one stops you.” I think we can all agree that surrendering to him will not discourage him. It never has discouraged anyone else.

Jeremy Smith
Old Orchard Beach

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