Citing the American "fracking revolution" as a significant factor in Russia's economic crisis, writers Jim Rosapepe and Sheilah Kast go a bit overboard in linking it with the comparative success of capitalism and democracy ("How dangerous is Russia?" Dec. 22).
First, the American fracking revolution, whatever its current economic benefits, remains a serious threat to our environment, so much so that New York state recently banned its practice. Second, to claim that America's economic success confers upon it some kind of "legitimacy" is wildly overblown.
As John Gray notes in the current issue of Harper's Magazine, "With the worst infrastructure in the advanced world, a disappearing middle class ... and a government gridlocked by corporate control, America and its political system are seen as a model by no one outside the United States."
Faced as we are with the worst inequality between rich and poor in over half a century, we are hardly in a position to tout our "legitimacy" by comparing ourselves with a country that can barely get its economic house in order.
Howard Bluth, Baltimore