I am amazed at the knowledge of Ralph Peters as he writes another great article (“Caging the Bear,” PostOpinion, April 3).
Very few people understand Russia and the rest of Europe, and very few comprehend the Eastern part of Europe, because the Western countries conveniently forgot that part of Europe for more than 40 years.
They did not have the courage to stand against Soviet leader Josef Stalin and consequently gave Eastern Europe to the Soviets.
The same cowardly European leaders still let Russians dictate their position in Europe and elsewhere.
I wish there were more intelligent writers like Peters with his vast knowledge of history and politics at large.
Henry Jablonowski
Brooklyn
“Caging the Bear” is, perhaps, the most blatant, outright expression of Russophobia, so rampant among neocons and establishment liberals alike, printed yet in public media.
Is Peters saying that the nation that produced Leo Tolstoy, Piotr Tchaikovsky and St. Sergius of Radonezh is only a collection of alcoholics?
Peters and his cohorts need a brush-up on history.
Don Rosenberg
Manhattan
I guess it was the Russians who armed the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and flew airliners into the World Trade Center.
It must be Russians who set off explosives in London and Madrid.
It was Russians that blew up the Khobar Towers and the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and we are all fools for failing to realize that the Russian Navy blew up the USS Cole.
This is the world that Peters and the administration live in.
They are not content with the enemies the United States already has.
They want Russia for an enemy, and if either Sen. John McCain or Sen. Hillary Clinton is elected, they will get their wish.
Jack Kalpakian
Infrane, Morocco
While there are valid opinions for and against NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, The Post is advancing ethnic bias, noting Soviet oppression as an intrinsically “Russian” yoke.
Russians themselves were under that tyranny, as were closely related western and eastern Ukrainians.
The allegedly “seldom sober” Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine actually have been the more economically advanced, not “backward.”
John G. Klansko
Middle Village