OPINION:
Can we send White House special envoy Steve Witkoff back to the real estate industry, where he would have less opportunity to embarrass our country?
It is great that Russia agreed to release, Stephen Hubbard, a long-held American we consider to have been unlawfully detained, but Mr. Witkoff’s statement to Vladimir Putin — “You are a humanitarian … sir” — in response to the released was sickening.
Some humanitarian. Mr. Putin has ordered the savage murders of Ukrainian civilians and the destruction of that country’s infrastructure: both war crimes. He has presided over the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children. And all evidence points to him as the culprit in the poisoning of political foes and the prison death of the brave and heroic human rights advocate Alexei Navalny.
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Mr. Putin is widely and justifiably recognized throughout the world as a pariah.
Before the Trump era, I never could have imagined that our country’s values would be turned on their head, that longstanding allies would be mocked, ridiculed and humiliated while leaders who are killers would be lionized.
This is a time to be embarrassed to be an American. I pray that the day will come when our country regains its bearings as a place in which pure evil is recognized and strongly challenged, not celebrated.
Whose side are we on? I am not sure I want the answer.
OREN SPIEGLER
Peters Township, Pennsylvania
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