Madam, - No doubt Charles Krauthammer revels in the opportunity to beat the Cold War drums again (Opinion, August 18th), but even he must recognise that recent hostilities in the Caucasus don't really alter any serious strategic realities.
If the worst he can charge Russia with is seeking to be - horror of horrors! - "master of the Caspian Basin", then he should tone his rhetoric down a notch. In no way would this lead to a re-established Russian "hegemony" over Eastern Europe, much of which is now firmly within the institutional clasp of the EU and Nato. A brief assault on Georgia (GDP $20 billion) in no way presages future mastery over Poland (GDP $620 billion), and to claim otherwise is simply bizarre.
Moreover, it should be kept in mind how short-lived Russia's revived "pre-eminence" could turn out to be. The country's population is declining massively, its infrastructure and education system remain decrepit, and its economy is disproportionately dependent on world commodity prices. None of these things augur well for a resurrection of imperial ambitions - or, indeed, a sustainable future of any sort.
The West - and Mr Krauthammer - should simply calm down. - Yours, etc,
SEAN COLEMAN,
Lindisfarne Lawn,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
Madam, - Seamus Martin, defending Russia's actions in Georgia (Head to Head, August 18th), warns that "Nato should be wary of admitting a country [Georgia] that has not completely committed itself to democracy and is prone to military adventures".
Does he seriously expect us to believe that in this conflict Georgia is the undemocratic party? After all, it's in Russia where, when the president was constitutionally prohibited from running for another term, he had himself appointed prime minister instead. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL KELLY,
Kilmainham,
Dublin 8.
Madam, - With new leaders in Britain, France and Germany and an outgoing US president, a complete lack of leadership in the West has been exposed by Russia's incursion into Georgia. Russia has been able to brutally annex the recognised territory of a small neighbouring state almost unopposed.
It has been particularly demoralising to watch EU President Sarkozy meeting President Medvedev and brokering a "peace" deal that confirms Russia's bloody territorial seizure.
Mr Sarkozy has himself contributed to bringing about this war by opposing Nato membership for Georgia earlier this year - ostensibly to calm Russian fears for its own security. He will now probably argue that this conflict requires an enhanced EU military capability, but the more important need is for greater leadership within the EU, and a real commitment to the "shared values" the EU purports to represent. - Yours, etc,
PAUL TIGHE,
Grove Park,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - Randy Scheunemann, Senator John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser, is a friend of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and was for four years a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government. He ended his official lobbying connection only last March, months after starting to work for McCain. He also worked on McCain's 2000 presidential campaign, after which he headed the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which championed the US Iraq invasion.
In 2005, while registered as a paid lobbyist for Georgia, Scheunemann worked with McCain to draft a congressional resolution pushing for Georgia's membership of Nato. A year later, while still on the Georgian payroll, Scheunemann accompanied McCain on a trip to that country, where they met Saakashvili and supported his hard-line views toward Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Now, at a time when McCain's presidential election campaign is floundering, Saakashvili launches an attack on South Ossetia, killing hundreds if not thousands of civilians and drawing the inevitable Russian military response. McCain has now recast his entire campaign around "Russian aggression" and the need to return to Cold War vigilance and values — drawing attention to Barack Obama's lack of experience and grounding in those values in the process.
It is not necessary to be a conspiracy theorist to ask, "Cui bono?" regarding the invasion of South Ossetia and the ensuing deaths. - Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.