Cold War chills and thrills

Re “The Cold War reheated,” Opinion, Aug. 21

It is indeed “Back to the Future,” as the old movie title suggests.

Anti-environmental conservatives are refighting the battle of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill in order to bring back offshore oil drilling. Values conservatives are refighting the war against gay rights through Proposition 8. And the grizzled old Reagan conservatives are refighting the Cold War through the crisis in Georgia.

Maybe it really is time for a change. We need to build a future instead of refighting the past.

Kevin B. Powell

Long Beach

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You bet the Cold War era was better than today! During the Cold War, we had the arms race. We had a stupendously powerful nuclear arsenal that wasn’t being used. A Cold War world is the best of all possible worlds: You have strong militaries, and nobody gets killed. Rosa Brooks writes sarcastically about making it 1981 again. The truth is, civilization on this planet peaked in the 1980s.

Alas, the Russian invasion of Georgia wasn’t the opening volley of a second Cold War. Russia, now a capitalist country, has neither the ability nor the will to engage in an arms race with the United States.

Josh Rivetz

Northridge