During the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the world came perilously close to nuclear war. This horror was averted when the Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles and personnel from Cuba in return for a commitment from the United States not to invade Cuba, and to remove our missiles from Turkey.

Apparently, this lesson from 1962 has been forgotten by our present leaders. We certainly would not tolerate Russian missiles in Cuba today, so why would anyone be naive enough to think Russia will tolerate our missiles and military personnel in Poland and Georgia?

Democracy is not an intramural activity. If we expect it to work on the world stage, we need to practice it at that level. It is naive to expect anyone (particularly Russia) to believe our reason for putting missiles in Poland is protection from missiles of “rogue nations” when the obvious reason is the strategic encirclement of Russia. It appears that our actions in Poland and Georgia have successfully rekindled the Cold War.

The ability of our presidential and vice presidential candidates to deal with this critical issue warrants careful consideration. Sarah Palin addressed this issue during the vice presidential debate, and the flippant manner in which she alluded to the U.S. taking military action against Russia to protect Georgia’s democracy casts grave doubts on her qualification for the office of vice president.

Gene Wilbur

Parkman