The NATO summit in Bucharest was confusing enough, but your article about it only adds to the muddle (“With Allies Like These,” April 5, 2008). “The cold war is over,” you duly quote George Bush. “Russia is not our enemy.” Inviting Croatia and Albania to join the club contradicts these words plainly enough. Macedonia would have been invited, too, were it not for the Greek petulance about its allegedly “stolen” name. It does not take much geopolitical acumen to see Serbia encircled by NATO’s members-to-be, either. Or to see the beleaguered Balkan country as a hapless Russian ally in the new cold war, and on the European soil. Why is it so difficult for you to spell things out, as well as to turn Bush’s words around? For there is no other way to understand them, anyhow.