Dear Editor,

I want the United States to use all its wisdom, power and diplomacy to assist in ending the bloodshed in the Ukraine.

I am not interested in defeating Vladimir Putin’s Russia–even though he and his cohorts need the disgrace of total military defeat.

“War breeds a plague of ills and evils. Most immediate is the acute tragedy for those directly killed, soldiers and civilians alike, with civilian deaths often being in excess of soldiers’ deaths in recent wars due to urban, aerial and guerrilla warfare,” according to H. Patricia Hynes as reported in Informed Comment.

I care about the thousands killed by this stupid war. I care about the little girl on her bicycle blown to bits by soldiers.

War breeds more killing of the innocents. War allows rape and sexual exploitation of women and girls by soldiers.

War diverts attention from the world’s rampant racism and antisemitism, global warming, economic inequality, food supplies and, above all, the critical threat to democracy.

It is time for President Biden and the Congress (both sides) to stop supporting this awful war (with our killing machinery) and it’s cruelty to people and necessary infrastructure.

In the name of humanity stop this awful war.

So what if a little land has to be given up. This land has changed hands many times over the centuries.

Bill Bryant

St. Clairsville