Audit needed, not more money
An irresponsible teenager will come home with a tattoo instead of the school clothes for which his parents gave him money. Our county wastewater division does the same thing.
Instead of buying replacement parts they squander their budget on unnecessary blueprints for impossible sewer projects. The mayor’s new bond float will enable this poor practice to continue.
The wastewater division needs an audit — not more money.
Jerry Warren
Naalehu
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Grim Irony
The possession of nuclear weapons by the major powers has worked for decades to prevent nuclear war and, in large part, also to prevent conventional warfare among the major powers. So the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, or MAD, has been working. The idea that the use of nuclear weapons would emerge from a major power was relegated to comic fiction in the 1964 “Doctor Strangelove” film.
The driver of the success of MAD was fear of a nuclear war. Now, in Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, there has risen a madman who apparently has no such fear and has threatened the use of nuclear weapons if the West takes decisive military action against his attack of Ukraine.
The major Western powers, quite rightly, do fear nuclear war. This has prevented the West from establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine and from sending troops to Ukraine. So the world is left with a grimly ironic situation, where the very fear of nuclear conflict that has prevented war is now allowing brutal onslaught against an unoffending nation.
I’m glad I’m not a statesman. I don’t have the slightest idea of how to solve a dilemma like this. I just know that it pains me immensely to watch and hear about the brutality in Ukraine.
Mike Keller
Kailua-Kona
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Another Korean War in Ukraine
After World War II, the Soviet Union occupied Korea north of the 38th parallel and the United States occupied the rest of Korea. Within a few months, the Koreans from the north invaded the south. At the time, the Soviet Union was boycotting the U.N. Security Council meetings because Red China had been accepted as the new representative of the Chinese people instead of Nationalist China. As a result, the Security Council was able to avoid a Soviet veto and declared the South Korean government the only legitimate government south of the 38th parallel and demanded that North Korea withdraw from the south and cease all such hostilities.
When North Korea ignored the U.N. resolution, the Security Council passed Resolution No. 83 which recommended military intervention by member countries of the U.N. to restore peace in Korea. As a result, international forces converged on Korea and restored the 38th parallel as the border between North and South Korea.
Why not use this same tactic to force Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and place a UN peace-keeping force along the original legitimate border?
But won’t Russia simply veto such a resolution? Undoubtedly, yes. But then the matter can be taken to the U.N. General Assembly where Russia will find very little support. Then, NATO and other international troops will be able to enter Ukraine to return the Russian troops to its legitimate borders. This will further isolate and highlight Russia’s embarrassing miscalculation and give the Russian military a possible reasonable way to exit Ukraine.
This is a battle between the autocratic world and the free democratic world. The U.N. was formed to prevent this very kind of aggression. It is time to make the U.N. work again.
John Sucke
Waimea
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