This letter was published in the Wall Street Journal today:
For those of us who spent years analyzing war games during the Cold War, there is an appropriate response to Dmitry Medvedev's threat to place missiles in Kaliningrad ("Obama's Russia Test," Review & Outlook, Nov. 7), and that is to say: "Go ahead, we will not respond to your escalation." We have no aggressive intentions toward Russia and feel reasonably confident that the Russians are more intelligent than to have any against us.Such action by Russia would be a waste of funds and would further reduce its status in Europe, and also with China which termed the threat "unfortunate." We could also reiterate that if Russia wants to prevent our placing defensive missiles in Europe, it could use its influence to convince the Iranians to terminate their nuclear weapons program. Then we might reasonably conclude that an antimissile system in Eastern Europe is not needed.
Richard E. Rieder
Capt. USNR, Ret.
Corrales, N.M.
