YOUR SAY: Learn from war history and keep standing with Ukraine

And on Thursday, February 16, the letter from David Corbett is yet another example of such appeasement.

I was born in Bath, England, in 1941 in the dark days of World War II. When I was six months old, my home in Bath was attacked on three successive nights and a bomb fell outside our home about three metres from our bomb shelter. Lucky for us, the bomb failed to detonate! However, several hundred people were killed and very much damage occurred to homes, businesses and infrastructure. I spent my childhood playing on bomb sites.

The devastation of so much of Ukraine brings back many memories.

The governments in Europe and elsewhere were moved by memories of the colossal costs of life and treasure of World War I and many tried to appease Herr Hitler but the fallacy was soon realised. He was not satisfied with one conquest!

Mr Putin ironically refers to the Cossacks of the Ukraine as 'Nazis', whereas he is following Hitler's playbook! His megalomania needs to recover all his old satellite states. Such is his mad insecurity.

I find Mr Corbett's letter to be offensive. NATO is a defensive organisation set up to defend its members from an offensive Soviet Union, the repressive system that Putin is trying to repeat initially in Ukraine, then all the other countries that Russia held post-World War II. Stalin didn't trust the Cossacks with their long history of independence, and shipped huge numbers of them to Siberia. Is it any surprise that they are fighting? Mr Corbett does not mention the savagery of the Russians; his comments on politicians and journalists may be received well by some, but they apply mostly to the people who have never survived such destruction and I include the two people referred to in this letter.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Re the problem with the disposal of the coffee cups: Would it not be easy if all outdoor or cafe coffee drinkers brought their own ceramic coffee mug, which after use can be rinsed at a tap set on one corner of the drinking plaza over rainwater drain, or a sink in the cafe with the taps set to a low flow, then wiped by both female/male drinkers with a small personal handkerchief, which the male population will have to learn to carry in a trouser pocket.

It can't be too difficult or expensive to install.

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