Ukraine deserves better than a columnist’s brushoff

I am appalled by Gwynne Dyer’s article [“Ukraine is not worth fighting for”, web-only].

Dyer writes “if Ukraine did not exist, it would not be necessary to invent it. It is not a great power, it has no resources the world cannot do without, and it is not a ‘vital strategic interest’ to anybody except the Ukrainians themselves.”

Following Dyer’s logic, “if Gwynne Dyer did not exist, it would not be necessary to ‘invent’ such a person. He is just one of the many other ordinary journalists, not Joseph Pulitzer, right? Hence why would anybody want to help him if he is in trouble or somebody robbed him or put a gun to his chest?”

Whether Dyer is right or wrong in his predictions on future developments in Ukraine is beyond the point. How his opinion is formulated in this article is offensive to 1.2 million Canadian Ukrainians, including myself.

Many of us have friends and relatives left in our home country, and we fear for their safety and well-being.

I was glad to see that other readers felt the same way I do. Read the comments to this article on the Georgia Straight’s website. My favourite one is: “Bosnia might not have been in anyone’s strategic interest either, but arguably an earlier intervention could have possibly prevented the death of over 100,000 people, displacement of 2.2 million people, and the rape of anywhere between 20,000–50,000 people.”

> Olga Shcherbyna / Vancouver

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