This letter appeared in the March 1-7 edition but is being reprinted because it contained several errors that altered its meaning. “North Country This Week” regrets the errors.

To the Editor:

So, Russia interferes with the US election by some hacking. The US government thinks it must punish Russia for interfering in our electoral system. Has this country no power of self-reflection? It has been only a little over a decade that the US invaded another country, hunted down its leader and hung him. The US has interfered in the politics of countries on every continent with military force that has cost millions of innocent lives, not some hacking.

I can go back to the US sending a military force into Russia to reverse the Russian Revolution that ended in Communist rule. This is long. Has the US forgotten Korea, China, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, Angola, the Congo, Libya, Chili, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, Cuba, Granada, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and now Syria. Not so long ago in history the US without asking anybody annexed Hawaii.

On one occasion in the campaign Hilary criticized Russia for hacking, interfering, with the US electoral system and then a little later saying, “Assad must go.” It’s difficult to miss the disconnect right there in one brief occasion. Did the speaker miss it?

To listen to authorities build a case against Russia because they invaded Ukraine and killed people and accuse them of human rights abuses seems to me the US is doing just what Trump does. When Trump is slighted he turns on the person and accuses them good and hard of what he is guilty of. And no one seems to notice when the US uses the same tactic. The hypocrisy is so blatant. Also from all the news coverage, one would think the US doesn’t hack!!

I think the greatest danger to the US is its lack of ability to make and honest assessment of its own path and be the kind of nation that lives up to what it keeps saying it is although US actions prove otherwise. What happens to the US is the natural result of the choices of the US has made and will make. The US needs to stop blaming others for its problems. Obama told Trump, “Stop whining,” when Trump was declaring the system was rigged when he was behind. So my advice to the US about Russian Hacking is, “Stop whining.” But it seems the US is willing to have another Cold War with Russia. I think the Russians learned from the first one but I’m afraid the US didn’t. I am counting on Russia to avoid it.

Putin did not put Trump in office. The electoral college system, gerrymandered districts, and corrupting influence of money in US politics did. Putin rightfully points out that Congress went Republican and asks if he is supposed to be responsible for that too. It’s time to fix tis country’s problems instead of meddling in everybody else’s internal affairs. It’s sad that the Western world inherited the Greek attitude toward war, “Might Makes Right.” The US needs to get over it; the European countries are certainly on the way.

Ina Brockriede

Potsdam