### Reader’s Letter to The Guardian, 23rd July 2024 ###
Dear Editor,
I read the responses to Simon Jenkins’ article on “Ignoring Russia’s fears about Nato expansion” (The Guardian, 22nd July 2024, link below) with some readers agreeing and some not. As for me, I happen to agree with Mr Jenkins, but feel that there is one further, even more important, point …
Mr Jenkins’ view, even if you don’t agree with it, is an opinion which needs to be investigated. But this and other similar views have been glaring absent from the debate: My feeling is that, from the very outset, if you mentioned the option of ceding territory to Russia, you were immediately “tarred and feathered” as a “Putin Lover”.
This level of “group-think” is remarkably familiar because, for many months now, pundits have been “kidding themselves” that Joe Biden was fit to run for president with expression of doubt being strictly forbidden. Now that Kamala Harris has taken over the ticket, I see (and sense myself) a great outpouring of relief.
I feel that the same is true of Ukraine and that we are locked in “group-think”. So as soon as Mr Jenkins’ view is taken up and discussed more seriously, we can start to “un-nail” our colours from the mast and get on with sorting out the problem.
Or will we, as with Mr Biden’s health, ignore reality until the situation becomes so bad that, god forbid, the whole thing explodes into an uncontrollable escalation?
Yours,
Alan Mitcham
Link to original article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/15/prime-minister-cheerleading-war-ukraine-starmer-iraq-nato
Link to readers’ letters: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/22/ignoring-russias-fears-about-nato-expansion-was-a-mistake
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