As a proud veteran of the U.S. Air Force who served our nation during the height of the Cold War, I found the behavior of President Donald Trump at the Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to be embarrassing and shameful. While it was probably wishful thinking that Trump would show some courage in dealing with the Russian dictator, there was no such thing as that on display.

Putin is not America’s friend, nor is he Trump’s friend despite his successful efforts in duping Trump into thinking so. But because Putin knows how to flatter and play Trump, he can come out on top at any meeting of the two, which is what happened in Alaska.

Let’s be clear — Putin is a thug, a murderer, a war criminal, a kidnapper of children, and a person who fears the freedom, liberty, and democracy we hold dear in the West. If Ronald Reagan were alive today, he would call out the Russian dictator as evil, just as he did when he called the Soviet Union (Russia) the Evil Empire in the 1980s. Trump is certainly no Reagan, that’s for sure.

America needs to stand strongly behind Ukraine and our NATO allies in dealing with Putin, and there is only one way to do that. The U.S. and its European allies need to do whatever it takes to arm Ukraine to the hilt and continue to weaken the Russian armed forces; only then, will Putin accept a ceasefire or come to the table to work out a peace agreement. We also need to place crippling tariffs on any nation that is profiting from the war by purchasing Russian oil and other products at a discount, and state clearly that after the war is over there will be security guarantees for Ukraine that will result in military action against Russia if there are future attacks.

This must be non-negotiable. Even if Ukraine never becomes a member of NATO, the security guarantees for that nation need to be just as strong as they would be for any of our NATO allies.

If Trump does not begin to show some courage, resolve, and strategic thinking in dealing with the Russian dictator, Putin’s expansionist dreams for Russia along with his murderous ways will continue. And as for Trump, he may well go down in history as the Neville Chamberlain of our times.

Jim Evans, Bradford