Peace push

Letter to the Editor, The Globe and Mail, re “NATO’s defence spending should go toward countries that need it, not to ourselves” (Opinion, April 27):

With NATO already spending more on military preparedness than Russia and China combined, calls to increase defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP are rightly characterized as obsolete. But to then focus on supplying arms “to other countries engaged in wars we will not join” has its own disturbing implications.

A primary one is that arms-supplying countries become champions of others fighting “as long as it takes,” and the most likely consequence is to prolong unwinnable wars. Diplomacy that searches for reasonable and practical settlement options would then be pushed to the sidelines and characterized as weakness and betrayal.

It often emerges that contemporary wars of aggression are not inevitable. For foresight to replace hindsight requires early and persistent attention to brewing conflicts.

Peace initiatives should be guided by the ethic of as much as it takes, for as long as it takes.

Ernie Regehr Waterloo, Ont.

May 1, 2024