Letters to the editor
Letters are welcome via email to [email protected]
More support for Ukraine
Regarding Ukraine’s “declining fortunes” in the war with Russia, (“Crunch time”, September 28th), Europe and America could do much more to support the country’s military objectives. Ukraine’s offensive in 2023 was a disappointment, but we should remember that it was delayed by the West’s failure to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine in a timely manner, giving Russia time to dig in.
Ever since Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, the West has been half-hearted in supporting Ukraine. For eight years we demonstrated our spinelessness. Russia may have been surprised by the extent of the West’s sanctions in 2022, but was vindicated by the weakness of our military response.
By failing to ensure total Ukrainian victory we are abetting Russian imperialism.
Kenneth Affleck
New Westminster, Canada
When I was in NATO’s headquarters in Kabul, a belief emerged that negotiations with the Taliban would inevitably produce a lasting peace deal. It never emerged. The very hope that a deal was possible and just required a bit more pressure on the Taliban’s leadership distracted us from recognising that the militants had completely undermined the state apparatus in rural Afghanistan. The Taliban knew they had the momentum and negotiations just served as a tool for their final victory.
Hoping for negotiations is not a strategy. We are long past the age of limited, cabinet wars. For over a century, large wars have ended either with a return to the status quo or a decisive victory. Unless Mr Putin clearly faces defeat he will not be pressed into a reasonable peace. Any deal he would accept would serve only as a means for the eventual subjugation of Ukraine. He needs to see that continuing the conflict with Ukraine will exhaust Russia and risk the collapse of his regime. Attempting half-measures will just give him succour, prolong the conflict and enable his dreams of imperial conquest.
There is no substitute for victory.
Major Robert Rose
Adviser Team Leader
United States Army
Karlovo, Bulgaria
The police can matter
Concerning the decline of murder in Boston (“Wicked safe”, September 14th), the close relationship between the police and “violence-interruption” groups that work with young men and women, leading to successful crime reduction, is no fluke peculiar to the city. Five decades of rigorous policing research confirms that approaches that are proactive and preventive, place-based, bespoke and problem-oriented, and that engage the community, can significantly reduce crime without damaging community-police relations. This is especially so when laser-focused on crime hot spots and high-risk individuals. The devil is in the detail.
How police implement and institutionalise high-quality, evidence-based approaches into everyday patrol and investigative activities matters to achieving both public safety and police legitimacy. As with medical science, policing research does have some solid specifics about how to achieve these goals. More attention should be paid to this than unproven best guesses about police reform.
Professor Cynthia Lum
Director
Centre for Evidence-Based Crime Policy
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
Taking control of our food
Bill Gates is entirely correct in saying that “feeding children properly” is crucial for our future (By Invitation, September 17th). Human time, energy, talents and capacity are a scarce resource that we need to nurture to tackle the multiple crises our societies face. But the solution does not lie with supplements or “fortifying bouillon cubes”. Rather it demands fixing our broken food system, ending the dominance of a handful of giant companies across the food chain, restoring local food systems and crop diversity, and ending the food waste and environmental disaster that is factory farming.
You could call it food sovereignty, or food democracy.
Natalie Bennett
Green Party
House of Lords
London
COP29 in Azerbaijan
The suggestion that hosting the biggest international event in Azerbaijan’s history is somehow aimed at distracting attention from our government is farcical (By invitation, September 26th). On the contrary, by hosting the world’s leading international UN climate summit, Azerbaijan is inviting more international scrutiny to our country than ever before, and we welcome it.
Equally farcical is the suggestion that Azerbaijan updating its infrastructure in advance of such an enormous event is somehow akin to a “Potemkin village”. Of course, every country that has ever hosted a COP summit has done precisely the same.
Our hosting of COP29 was not planned. It was the unexpected outcome of unprecedented bilateral peace talks with Armenia, which had previously publicly announced that it would veto our bid.
This is why we are calling for a COP truce based on the Olympic truces. That may sound ambitious given what is going on in the world, but after our hosting of COP occurred through an agreement few ever thought possible it would be a mistake for us not to try.
Readers of The Economist should also know that freedom of speech and expression will be encouraged, and on display in full at COP29. No agreement that is reached without its spirit can be worthy of its name.
Ramid Namazov
Member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan from the New Azerbaijan Party
Baku
Pushing for European reform
Since the publication of Mario Draghi’s report on Europe’s future competitiveness much of the analysis has focused on his call for an additional €800bn ($878bn) annual investment to drive the strategy (“Mario’s mixed message”, September 14th). But it would do the author a disservice and jeopardise Europe’s economic revival if policymakers were to concentrate solely on this aspect. The reality is even grimmer.
Europe is in its worst position relative to other regions of the world since the late 1960s. To facilitate investment the elusive capital-markets union project must become a priority in order to boost the large-scale ventures that Europe needs. Enabling the easy flow of private capital across the European Union will help enormously.
The European Commission should also tackle the cumulative stockpile of overlapping regulatory requirements, many of which originate from ill-conceived or poorly implemented EU legislation. Environmental, social and governance goals are laudable, but the additional regulatory burden is unacceptable to smaller-sized companies. Making a start on minimising this burden would offer swift relief.
Political commitment is a crucial factor if the Draghi report is to evolve into the competitiveness strategy that it purports to be, rather than just a wish-list of ideas that is dispatched to the same dusty archive as many other well-intentioned EU reports. The stakes have never been higher for Europe. The very foundations of post-war integration are under threat.
Vladimír Dlouhý
President
Eurochambres
Brussels
Considerate colleagues
As a student of human behaviour, I appreciated Bartleby (mostly) promoting the benefits of kindness in the workplace (September 21st). As Dr Johnson noted, “Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.”
Kurt Ela
Clinical associate professor of psychiatry
Georgetown University Medical Centre
Washington, DC
“Don’t You Want Me”?
I have never seen a new government make such a series of public-relations gaffes so quickly as Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour ministers (“That sinking feeling”, September 28th). The Tony Blair era played out to the song “Things Can Only Get Better”. The Starmer era has started with “Anarchy in the UK”. Though I think it is unlikely that this government will ever move from punk to New Wave.
David Doe
Oxted, Surrey
The cocktail hour
You cited James Thurber on the thorny topic of what is the optimal number of martinis (World in a Dish, September 21st). I have always held this quote, often mistakenly attributed to Dorothy Parker, to be authoritative on the matter:
I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
After four I’m under my host.
COLIN HUGH BUCKLEY
London