Simon Alderton was clearly triggered by a few irrefutable facts that don’t conform to his opinion about the war in Ukraine, his opinion no doubt informed solely by mainstream media.
He called me a ‘Putin apologist’, a childish insult at best, and his claim that I blame Ukraine is simply untrue, obviously I blame the US, not Ukraine.
His letter (Echo, Dec 31) betrays a lack of knowledge about the conflict and its causes, which go back to the end of the Cold War, and entail US efforts to provoke conflict between the two neighbours.
Simon would do well to watch Oliver Stone’s 2016 documentary, Ukraine on Fire, about the US-sponsored coup d’état that brought the far-right ultra-nationalist regime to power in 2014. He should also read Scott Horton’s book, Provoked: How Washington started the new Cold War with Russia and the catastrophe in Ukraine, which exposes the history of US intervention in Ukraine.
Simon asks what I would do if Australia was invaded by a vastly superior foreign power. I would point out that China is our largest and most important trading partner, and they have never threatened us. If we get into a war with China, it will be due to the incompetence of our leaders and their abject subservience to Washington.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
