Readers Write: Russian cyberthreats, Gaza aid pause

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Minnesota Star Tribune, you can, and must, do better. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have just ordered a halt to U.S. offensive cyber and information efforts again Russia. According to the Washington Post, experts warn this “represents a concession to one of America’s most active cyber adversaries.”

This is an extraordinary victory for Moscow, and yet another gift to Trump’s undeniable superior, Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Monday’s paper, a reprinted article about this appeared as a tiny sidebar on page A10 (“U.S. halts cyber efforts against Moscow”). That’s five pages behind the article on a Pine County township’s fight over lake lot size. No disrespect to Pine County, but Trump’s mind-boggling and daily treasonous capitulations to Russia should be big news, at least by page A3! What more important issues are there to your readers than the security and, indeed, future of our very democracy?

Don’t wake up one day (if you still exist) and realize that you, the free press, the mouthpiece for our free citizenry, failed to do your duty.

David Braden, Edina

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I am concerned that the article in Monday’s paper “U.S. halts cyber efforts against Moscow” was placed as a small sidebar on the back page of the A section. The news that the defense secretary has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, is a major and sudden departure from U.S. policy, and should appear on page one, above the fold.

Russia has been and continues to be our adversary, posing cyberthreats against our critical infrastructure and our elections. Many cybersecurity personnel have been fired, and others have been ordered not to report on Russian threats, making us vulnerable to future attacks.

Please place critical stories like this on the front page.

John Matheson, Minneapolis

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The debacle on Friday concerning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House had the appearance of a choreographed ambush to destroy the agreement on mineral resources in Ukraine and further withdraw support from the country. Another more ominous association was that it occurred right after Hegseth terminated offensive cyber activity against Russia.

The chaos in the White House was a useful distraction from what was an even more dangerous unilateral disarmament by the U.S. in its struggle against a proven aggressive enemy, Russia. The two actions seem like they can only be explained by the image of Trump controlled and directed by Russia based upon the Kremlin’s unknown leverage over him.

It is not only Ukraine that is in mortal danger from foreign adversaries through Trump’s actions. The U.S. is also at risk from his actions on both the foreign and domestic fronts.

David Detert, Northfield

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Every day something happens in the U.S. that makes me wonder what world I live in. I was born at the end of World War II — a war my dad fought in. I grew up with a great uncle who was severely wounded in the war. I listened to the anguish of these men and other elders as we made it through the Cold War. Now I wonder how I could ever explain what has transpired as we turn our back on Ukraine and open up to our enemy Russia — and believe me, none of these elders thought we could or should trust Russia.

But now we not only let Russia into the White House, but we also hear Elon Musk telling us to get out of NATO and the U.N. The CIA and the FBI protect us from international spies and threats, but that is not what the Trump administration wants. And now Hegseth orders a stop to the cyber-offensive plans for Moscow in our own military.

They have fired two leaders from the Joint Chiefs (coincidentally I am sure, a Black man and a woman) and threaten to cut our defense budget.And they pretend to be Republicans.It is time for the real Republicans to get the nerve to say no, and it is already time to look to impeachment.

Michael Link, Willow River, Minn.

The headline “Outrage as all aid to Gaza is halted” (front page, March 3) was horrifying. The U.N. reports 48,348 dead in Gaza, 111,761 injured and 91% facing starvation. It is completely clear that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has adopted the “generals’ plan” of “surrender or starve” in Gaza.

This is unmistakably genocide.

Our government apparently supports this, with $310 billion in aid to Israel ($228 billion in military aid) since 1948. Since Oct. 7, 2023, alone, the U.S. has sent $17.9 billion of arms to Israel.

Many have worked to end U.S. complicity. There have been more than 100 city ceasefire resolutions. There have been encampments and walkouts in 45 states, including four in Minnesota. Six hundred fifty thousand Democrats voted “uncommitted” to oppose President Joe Biden’s support of Israel. But the slaughter continues, with our own tax support and even legal prohibitions in 38 states (including Minnesota) against divesting from the Israeli genocide.

The Holocaust lesson “never again” should include Palestine. The shame of the U.S. turning away boatloads of Jewish refugees from the Nazis should not be repeated. The inexcusable attacks of Oct. 7 should not be used to excuse starving children or allowing newborns to die of hypothermia in the tents.

I am today contacting the embassies of European countries, asking them to use uniformed but unarmed members of their own militaries to accompany aid trucks into Gaza from Egypt. If our nation is again willing to ignore genocide until it is too late, perhaps other nations will act before it is too late.

Charles Underwood, Minneapolis

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I hope we never again have to endure the false platitudes about how much the U.S. stands for human rights, freedom and justice. Israel has again halted the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and is literally starving the civilian population while the U.S. is not only silent, not merely complicit, but funding this torture and death.

Now the West Bank invasion is intensifying daily with tanks deployed for the first time since the Second Intifada in September 2000. Mainstream media barely mentions this escalation and still refuses to recognize that our government is funding a genocide even as we continue to rain death and destruction on the Palestinian people in their homeland. In Ukraine, we’ve made our devil’s bargain clear: You want our help, sign away your mineral rights to the defenders of liberty and democracy. And in the Middle East it’s all about oil. Freedom fries, anyone?

Harry Chalmiers, St. Paul

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My comment is about the lead article on March 3. I think most of us agree that withholding food from Palestinian non-Hamas civilians is problematic. But there is so much conflicting information, it is hard to assess the truth of what the article concludes is Israel’s inhumanity to Palestinian civilians.

Israel, which may not be a totally reliable source, but is certainly every bit as reliable, if not more than Hamas or the U.N., says that there is more than enough food, but Hamas is stealing it and selling it so they can buy more ordnances. Why would Israel ship food to Gaza only to have it diverted to the war effort against it?

I have seen videos of huge stores of food for sale on the streets in Gaza. Since it had to come from Israel, it is clearly being diverted. What journalist can be trusted to do enough research to tell the truth here?

Until a trustworthy source emerges, I choose to believe Israel and consider this to be yet another case of biased reporting against Israel and the Jews.

Art Glassman, Hopkins