Madam - Seán Steele (August 20th) accuses me of "scraping ever harder at the bottom of the barrel" in a "desperate attempt to excuse [ the] Russian aggression against Georgia" and claims that the Russian bombing of Georgia explains why Georgia feels the need to employ lobbyists in Washington.
He rather misses my point on both counts. I am not in the business of excusing Russian or any country's aggression against another, nor am I naive about the lobbying processes that go on in Washington.
Quite the reverse: the evidence indicates that Randy Scheunemann, Senator John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser, may have used his influence on Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to persuade him that "Washington would have his back" if he invaded South Ossetia - especially during a US presidential election campaign.
In so doing, he handed his current employer, Senator John McCain, a badly needed boost to his floundering presidential campaign at the cost of another embarrassing defeat for "the West" in the battle for supremacy (or stability) in world affairs.
It is not in Ireland's or in Europe's interest to rekindle the Cold War just for some perhaps fleeting advantage in a domestic US political campaign. There is an ever-increasing economic, political, energy and environmental interdependency between western and eastern Europe (including Russia) and the fanning of Cold War embers by either Georgia invading South Ossetia supported by "the West", or by Russia invading Georgia , is the very last thing we need.
Already this has led to Poland and the US signing an agreement to site US anti-ballistic missiles on Polish territory, allegedly aimed at rogue states or Al-Qaeda, when, in practice, only Russia has ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe.
The successful enlargement of the EU was achieved in large measure by the ending of the Cold War.
Why ever would we want to restart it - even if it does play well in some sections of domestic US politics and keeps the arms industry going strong? - Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER,
Red Lane,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.
Madam, - The sabre rattling from the USA directed at Russia is as startling as it is extreme.
One expert from the Rand Corporation referred to Russia as "a shambles of a non-country".
This type of insulting talk is being backed up by threats from Washington.
One has to wonder if they are hoping to plunge the world into a nuclear inferno. While their rhetoric is dangerous, the facts surrounding the current conflict are plain.
Like North Korea or North Vietnam or indeed, Northern Ireland, there is a place called "North Ossetia". A random line on a map, drawn by Joe Stalin after the second World War, created South Ossetia and split the then "Ossetia" in two. The northern part is 100 per cent pro-Russian (inside the Russian border) and the southern part is 71 per cent so. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia fell into the hands of the Georgians and they have been trying to get out of that grip ever since.
The people want to reunite their country inside a greater Russia and have been fighting for their freedom for many years. So, on August 6th, the Georgians decided to take them by force and sent their much more powerful army into South Ossetia to crush the resistance.
From a Russian perspective, a pro-western country (Georgia) which was soon to join Nato, was attacking and killing loyal Russian-speaking citizens right on the Russian border.
Add to that the fact that Russians historically neither like nor trust Georgians. Their response was predictable, quick and effective.
They had the Georgians on the run from South Ossetia within hours and entered another separatist state (Abkhazia) as well, and then followed the retreating army into Georgia proper to ensure that they continued running.
What happens next is the fortunes of war, but it is important to note that the Russians did not start this but may just finish it.
From our perspective in Ireland, these are far away places and most of us have never heard of them.
But the No side in the Lisbon Treaty referendum warned us that a European rapid reaction force was part of the plan. With the Americans siting nuclear weapons now in Poland which borders Georgia, who would bet against that proposed force defending Poland against the Russians in some future confrontation?
The idea of Irish soldiers facing Russian troops might seem pretty remote to us, yet only last week, one of our Ministers was offering our troops as peacekeepers in an occupied Georgia, right at the centre of this current hot spot.
It makes one reflect on the saying "old men make wars and young men die", - Yours, etc,
JOHN MALLON, Mayfield, Cork.