Web Letters: The Cold War That Wasn't

Ames writes: "The Estonians first tried suckering the West with the cyber-chupacabra a year ago, but subsequent investigation revealed that it was one of those 'unprovables' at best." The origins of the cyber-attacks may be difficult to prove, but to imply that Estonians were attempting to "sucker" the West is a pretty outlandish accusation. Talk about "&ens;'unprovable' at best"!

Estonia is a tiny country with a long history of being either occupied or bullied by its much larger and more aggressive neighbour. Can you present any historical evidence of Estonians collectively behaving in such a deceptive and dishonest manner, leading you to jump to such a unfounded conclusion?

Sharing a border with Russia is probably the only thing that Estonia has in common with Georgia, so there is no real reason to even include it in the article, except to generate some additional misguided empathy for an authoritarian, brutish government in Moscow.

Alex Ferguson

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I sincerely hope that Mr. Ames never occupies a position of genuine authority. He is reminiscent of the useful idiots who came back from Soviet "Potemkin villages" and proclaimed that the future works.

Craig Marsden

Brisbane, Australia

I agree that the New York Times may have originally presented the conflict between Russia and Georgia as too black-and-white, and that Geogia may not be a typical Western-style democracy. I can understand the US siding with Georgia because a Russian victory would give them more control over the oil pipeline that runs through Georgia. Currently, over a million barrels of oil flow through it to Western Europe. If that flow were interrupted, it would affect them and cause economic ripples elsewhere.

What I object to is any intimation that we will militarily defend Georgia, when we most certainly won't. Our military is already spread too thin, and the public wouldn't stand for it. As long as NATO still exists, any agreements should clearly spell out that in the event of a Russian conflict with its neighbors, our strongest reaction will be sanctions.

Steven Kalka

East Rockaway, NY

Thanks for this article. Sometimes, living in Russia and reading foreign newspapers, you start thinking that you are crazy and that Russians are just very bad. Why is this? Does the West, or maybe the US, really want the cold war back, or are we dealing with a generation of journalists who cannot escape their past?

Yesterday I was watching BBC World and they reported about the conference in Europe collecting money to rebuild Georgia. Of course, I have nothing against Europe helping the people in any country that has suffered from war. But, in the reporting about this conference, there was no word about who started this war, and I think there has never been any other country that, after starting a war, immediately received a lot of money to repair the damage of its mistake. A few days earlier, Sarkozy told us that what Georgia had done was very wrong, but I guess that was not a reason to let them collect their own money.

Again I ask why? Is there still a cold war going on?

V. Chelkov

Chelyabinsk, Russia