Letters to the Editor: Did Obama really send only blankets to the Ukrainians?

To the editor: I watched hours of impeachment hearings and found Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were focused on eliciting kernels that can be popped into slogans like, “Trump gave them Javelins, Obama gave them blankets.”

The Trump administration providing Ukraine with anti-tank missiles has been universally praised by witnesses. In her testimony Thursday, however, former White House Russia advisor Fiona Hill qualified her support. Hill noted that during the Obama presidency, she had coauthored an op-ed article opposing the release of the Javelins, because she felt the Ukrainian military “was not in a fit state to really take on board sophisticated weapons.”

Hill’s counsel of restraint certainly resonated. At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin imprudently bestowed surface-to-air missiles to his untrained proxies in eastern Ukraine. The result was the downing of a commercial airliner.

Two years later, Hill came to support the release of Javelins to Ukraine. The change came after she joined the National Security Council and learned from partners at the Pentagon that the Ukrainian military was now a competent, sustainable force.

Perhaps the more accurate slogan would read, “Obama laid the foundation, Trump took the credit.”

Michael Hawkins, Newbury Park

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To the editor: Here’s a reply to the article that said U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland saved himself, not Trump: The president doesn’t need saving.

The result of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s circus is preordained. The House of Representatives will impeach Trump regardless of testimony for or against the president.

Then the Senate will acquit. Any questions?

Michael Sanchez, West Hollywood