Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Netanyahu Gives No Ground in Congress Speech


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/world/middleeast/25diplo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Netanyahu%20gives%20no%20ground&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, May 25, 2011 at 9:08 AM
Subject: re: Netanyahu Gives No Ground in Congress Speech
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Before PM Netanyahu's words are taken at face value, they should be weighed against the historic record. Israel's pre-1967 borders have been battle-tested and defended. To now call them "indefensible" as he does it to defy logic. It's now nine years since Sari Nusseibeh and Danny Ayalon sketched what a two-state peace agreement will look like. What they couldn't tell us was how to get there. It increasing looks like that will require not only the death of Arafat, but also the retirement of Netanyahu.
Barry Haskell Levine

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Divisions Are Clear as Obama and Netanyahu Discuss Peace

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/middleeast/21prexy.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, May 21, 2011 at 7:20 AM
Subject: re: Divisions Are Clear as Obama and Netanyahu Discuss Peace
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Perhaps president Netanyahu doesn't know what "indefensible" means. Israel's pre-1967 borders were battle-tested and defended (as were those of '47). To call what has been defended "indefensible" is to play at language without communicating.  As horrific as they are, Israel has never lost a shooting war. What is indefensible is the status-quo.  Israel needs peace, not this indefinite hostile cease-fire.That's going to require bold leadership all around, not sterile word-games.
Barry Haskell Levine

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Church Report Cites Social Tumult in Priest Scandals

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/us/18bishops.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, May 18, 2011 at 9:22 AM
Subject: re: Church Report Cites Social Tumult in Priest Scandals
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
    American society changed on many fronts in the Sixties. The Bishops point to changing attitudes towards sex. I would point to changing attitudes towards authority.  The generation that decided that they did not deserve to be sent to Vietnam by their government also decided that they did not deserve to be raped by their priests. In each case the struggle has been long and the outcome remains uncertain. In each case, abuses were fostered by secrecy. In each case, we had to drag the horrors into the daylight--against the protests of the powerful--to build a better society.
Barry Haskell Levine

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Long Overdue Palestinian State

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/opinion/17abbas.html?scp=1&sq=the%20long%20overdue%20Palestinian%20State&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:22 AM
Subject: re: The Long Overdue Palestinian State
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   The United Nations has met to consider the matter of a Palestinian State and voted in the affirmative. That was sixty-four years ago. Of course the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria promptly seized those lands and more. Now the U.N. proposes to revisit the issue. What has changed? The partition of 1947 conferred legitimacy on three entities. One Jewish State, one Arab State and the International Enclave of Jerusalem that would belong to neither because it belongs to the world.  Did the military seizures of 1948 change what was settled in the U. N. general council? That's not a definition of legitimacy that the U N. has ever embraced until now. The Palestinian State is long overdue; so is the International Enclave.
Barry Haskell Levine

Monday, May 16, 2011

The Rush to Secret Money

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/opinion/16mon3.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20rush%20to%20secret&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, May 16, 2011 at 8:33 AM
Subject: re: The Rush to Secret Money
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   This paper's plea to clean up the functioning of our democracy is muffled by a Malaprop image. The house where the wealthy trade cash for the gratification of their desires in the dark isn't a "casino"; it's a brothel.
Barry Haskell Levine

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The best hope for getting out of Afghanistan is some political deal with the Taliban.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/opinion/14sat1.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, May 14, 2011 at 2:42 PM
Subject: re: The best hope for getting out of Afghanistan is some political deal with the Taliban.
To: letters@nytimes.com


to the Editor:
   There is a crying need for non-military US aid to Pakistan. Decades of governments that have misappropriated billions of our dollars to develop nuclear weapons have left Pakistanis poor, illiterate and disease-ridden.  We need, however to disentangle that from military aid. The best way for us to get out of Afghanistan is to get out of Afghanistan. That's not contingent on the Taliban, or on the Pakistanis or on anyone else. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of American can and should bring our troops and contractors home because that's in our interest. If we didn't need to supply an army in Afghanistan, we wouldn't need to buy the good will of the government in Islamabad.
Barry Haskell Levine

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Coal Curriculum Called Unfit for 4th Graders



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/education/12coal.html?_r=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Thu, May 12, 2011 at 12:50 PM
Subject: re: Coal Curriculum Called Unfit for 4th Graders
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
 I applaud the initiative of the groups opposing the coal curriculum.
But shouldn't they be aiming higher? Why shouldn't the coal industry
have as free a hand in shaping public school curricula as it has in
writing the federal regulation of it's own practices.  The kids
deserve a fair and unbiased education on energy policy as on all
things. They are going to grow into the citizens who have to wrest
control of our Energy Policies from the interests of the few,
including Big Coal. Our Congress has utterly failed in that task.
Barry Haskell Levine

Demanding Answers From Pakistan



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/opinion/12khalilzad.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=demanding%20answers%20from%20Pakistan&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Thu, May 12, 2011 at 10:10 AM
Subject: re: Demanding Answers From Pakistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  To leave the investigation of the Intelligence failings that let
Osama bin-Laden live for years in Abbottabad to the Pakistani military
is to guarantee that nothing is learned. It would be as risible as
leaving the investigation of John Yoo's and Jay Bybee's roles in
green-lighting torture to the U.S. department of Justice. We were
lucky to see bits of the evidence before David Margolis neutered the
report of the OPR. I don't believe we'll ever see the evidence if the
Pakistani report has to get past the desk of Ashfaq Kayani--who used
to run the ISI and now runs the military--or of his picked minions.
Barry Haskell Levine

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

After Bin Laden, U.S. Reassesses Afghan Strategy


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/world/middleeast/11military.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=afghanistan&st=cse


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Wed, May 11, 2011 at 11:29 PM
Subject: re: After Bin Laden, U.S. Reassesses Afghan Strategy
To: letters@nytimes.com


to the Editor:
  U.S. voters are notoriously dim on the distinction between al-Qaeda
and the Taliban and congressman McKeon would put a stumbling block
before the blind. Al-Qaeda is an international terrorist group bent on
the overthrow of what they have called godless governments in Saudi
Arabia, the U.S. and India inter alia. The Taliban is a Pashtun
insurgency bent on imposing their tribal values and mores on the
Afghan majority.  Our grievance with al-Qaeda as perpetrators of the
atrocities of 9/11 was largely discharged with the demise of Osama
bin-Laden.  Our grievance with the Taliban was merely that they had
given him shelter.  It is time to declare victory and get out. We got
what we came for. The Taliban's fight is not our fight.
Barry Haskell Levine

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Missing Fifth



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/opinion/10brooks.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=david%20brooks&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, May 10, 2011 at 9:21 AM
Subject: re: The Missing Fifth
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   David Brooks' dread of the welfare state cannot be rooted in his
data. As he cites " the United States has a smaller share of prime age
men in the work force than any other G-7 nation". That is to say that
getting a larger fraction of adult males to work correlates with those
countries who have more socialist institutions, rather than fewer. I
can't prove that the deficiencies in our Social Safety Net cause our
disproportionate unemployment, but I can cite the correlation. To cite
the correlation and then claim that it proves the opposite requires a
special sort of madness.
Barry Levine

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Bin Laden and the New Unknown in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/asia/08taliban.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Bin%20Ladens%20death%20and%20the%20new%20&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, May 8, 2011 at 8:17 PM
Subject: re: Bin Laden and the New Unknown in Afghanistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


to the Editor:
   The Taliban will be satisfied with nothing less than imposing their values and mores on the rest of Afghanistan or ruling their own Pashtunistan.  If we are true to the U. N.Charter's creed of "national self-determination of peoples" we should support their secession.  Our business in Afghanistan was only to apprehend the perpetrators of 9/11.  There will never be a better moment at which to declare victory and leave than the present. Our fight with al-Qaeda continues, but it is not with Afghanistan. We got what we came for. Thank you and goodbye. We'll pay for the broken furniture, of course.
Barry Haskell Levine

Friday, May 6, 2011

Pakistani Army Chief Warns U.S. on Another Raid

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/asia/06react.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=kayani&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, May 6, 2011 at 10:48 PM
Subject: re: Pakistani Army Chief Warns U.S. on Another Raid
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   Perhaps general Kayani is playing to some other audience. When Americans read his threat to refuse our military aid if we ever dare snatch another terrorist whom he has been sheltering, we say "fair deal!".  We can think of a thousand better uses for the billions we have routed through his hands, first as head of the ISI and now as head of the Pakistani military.  I no longer care whether he is complicit or merely incompetent. For what we're paying, we can buy a better grade of puppet.
Barry Haskell Levine

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Prosecutors Are Expected to Seek Dismissal of Charges Against Bin Laden

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/nyregion/with-bin-ladens-death-seeking-the-dismissal-of-all-charges.html?scp=1&sq=prosecutors%20are%20expected%20to%20seek&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, May 4, 2011 at 9:26 AM
Subject: re: Prosecutors Are Expected to Seek Dismissal of Charges Against Bin Laden
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editors:
    Osama bin Laden's extensive charge sheet was abruptly rendered moot when he was killed while resisting arrest.  It continues however to shine an unflattering glare on Anwar al-Awlaki's charge sheet.  Mr. al-Awlaki has never been charged with a crime in the U.S. system.  To kill him as president Obama has ordered away from the battlefield, without any charges would open a new and shameful chapter on the exercise of American power.
Barry Levine

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Be Careful Wishing for the Fed’s End

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01fed.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=imagine:%20the%20fed%20dead&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, May 1, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Subject: re: Be Careful Wishing for the Fed’s End
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   Roger Lowenstein daintily avoids mentioning what the Fed is. As a private (or--at best--a quasi-governmental) institution, the Fed's mandate to make a profit is not always in the nation's interest. Ask the Greeks or the Portuguese or the Germans what happens when a nation is no longer master of its own mint.  The Greek and Portuguese economies are in shambles because their currencies were over-valued, and the Germans are grumbling about having to bail them out.  The Fed is not the only option to the gold standard. Our Federal government was its own banker at various periods in our history. It's fiat currency whether we print money at need or we borrow it from the Fed. The latter solution has the disadvantage of putting us further into debt.
Barry Haskell Levine