Really Soft Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/opinion/27schaub.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=really%20soft%20power&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Subject: re: Really Soft Power
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   As professor Schaub notes, reorganizing the Defense Secretary's office would not solve the structural problem of a weak State Department. The civilian input, oversight and control that is needed is that of an officer of state answerable to the Secretary of State, not a regional deputy defense secretary, answerable to the Pentagon.

Barry Levine

2 Ex-Detainees in Qaeda Video

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/world/middleeast/25yemen.html?scp=1&sq=ex-detainees&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 6:55 PM
Subject: re: 2 Ex-Detainees in Qaeda Video
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  In the next few days, we will hear arguments that the new Al Qaeda video, showing two ex-detainees from Guantanamo have joined the cause in Yemen justifies keeping their fellows indefinitely. No civilized country will accept that argument.  Although a few heroic figures--Mandela and Gandhi come to mind--have emerged from abusive incarceration to preach peace and reconciliation, rage is the more likely response. I daresay more than a few of the readers of this paper would harbor a grudge against any government that had treated them as these men have been treated. To keep their fellows indefinitely to forestall an attack that they haven't yet made or conceived would be to instituted Orwell's nightmare. To do so in the name of "freedom" would be obscene.

Barry Levine

As Israeli Bombing Stops, Gazans Get busy Rebuilding Damaged Tunnels

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/world/middleeast/24gaza.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=tunnels%20gaza&st=cse

On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 3:21 PM, barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com> wrote:

To the Editor:

      Any argument that the rockets protect Gaza runs afoul of the facts. The Israeli army comes when it wants, goes where it wants and leaves in time for the American inauguration. Rockets from Gaza can kill and they can bring reprisals, but they protect no one.

Barry Levine

Departing U.S. Ambassador Warns Against Quick Withdrawal From Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/middleeast/23iraq.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=ryan%20crocker%20&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Subject: re: Departing U.S. Ambassador Warns Against Quick Withdrawal From Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Even as he publicly endorsed a withdrawal from Iraq, president  Bush continued to back Ryan Crocker and his plan for an indefinite U.S. presence there. For two years now we have been arming and empowering sectarian forces. These groups have no interest in ceding power to a peaceful central government. If we were to withdraw precipitately today, there would be bloody civil war. If we were to stay fifty years and the withdraw, there will be bloody civil war. What could justify the American deaths in that interim?

Barry Levine

The One-State Solution

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22qaddafi.html?scp=1&sq=one-state&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Subject: re: The One-State Solution
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
 Mr. Qadaffi's proposal--like Marxism--is a system better suited to
governing a society of angels than one of men. Jew and Muslim alike
look forward to another world in which all nations will be one and
borders will be unnecessary. In the world as we know it peace has come
to the Balkans (e.g.) by allowing the separate communities their
separate states, rather than caging them together.  Even closer, we
remember that the partition of Palestine has already created the
legitimate and peaceful state of Jordan.
 When they were last polled, an substantial majority of Palestinians
in the West Bank and Gaza (and a larger majority of Israelis) were
ready to sign on to a two-state solution like that sketched in the
Ayalon/Nusseibeh plan. The problem is less the shape of the solution
than the path to get there. The mirage of a peaceful one-state
solution is one more barrier to real progress.
Barry Levine

Mr. Bush's Gentlemanly Goodbye

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/opinion/20ornstein.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=gentlemanly&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Subject: re: Mr. Bush's Gentlemanly Goodbye
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
 Skipping all the heroes in the Shakespearean canon, president George
W. Bush now seems to have modelled himself on a minor character, the
thane of Cawdor of whom the bard said: "Nothing in his [political]
life became him like the leaving it." If--like Cawdor--he had
confessed his treasons, he would at least have left a clean stage on
which president Obama will undertake a very difficult role.
Barry Levine

Marriage Ban Donors Feel Exposed by List

From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Subject: Marriage Ban Donors Feel Exposed by List
To: letters@nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/us/19prop8.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ban%20donors%20feel&st=cse

To the Editor:
  Backers of proposition Eight in California now seek to invent new
rights for themselves, while denying established rights to others. I
seek in vain for any guarantee of anonymity attached to our right of
free speech. Indeed, political speech is protected best when the
speakers own their words, rather than hide in anonymity.
Barry Levine

Back to the Future on Four Legs

From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 3:19 PM
Subject: re: Back to the Future on Four Legs
To: letters@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/opinion/17sat4.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=future%20on%20four%20legs&st=cse

To the Editor:
 If the relevant question for military transport is "how soon", the
answer is yesterday. Get a mule. Although draft and portage animals
lack the wow factor to attract pricey contracts, they work. Put the
money into human development rather than an unnecessary pipedream of
the military-industrial complex.
Barry Levine

Some Ask if Bailout Is Unconstitutional

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/us/politics/16challenge.html?scp=1&sq=bailout%20is%20unconstitutional&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Subject: re: Some Ask if Bailout Is Unconstitutional
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    While the question of delegating Congressional Powers--whether in war-making or in matters of the Purse--is real, the assertion from the FreedomWorks Foundation is factually wrong. This $700 billion bailout is not the biggest delegation Congress has attempted. That honor belongs to the Iraq invasion. Even if one ignores the other costs and tallies only the dollars, we have committed over $2 billion to that venture, and we're not done yet.

Barry Levine

A Somber Bush Says Farewell to the Nation

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/us/politics/16bush.html?scp=1&sq=a%20somber%20bush&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 9:04 AM
Subject: re: A Somber Bush Says Farewell to the Nation
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    President George W. Bush has never been one to test his rhetoric against reality. On his lips, lies are weapons and even the truth isn't to be trusted. He admonishes us: "If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led". This from the man who disdained to lead an international effort to root out Al Qaeda when the Pakistanis, the Saudis, the Iranians and most of the world stood ready to join us. He preferred to claim the powers of a war-time president. Osama bin Laden has out-lasted him. His legacy is a diminution of civil rights in the U.S. a Pakistan teetering upon dissolution and a world less free.

Barry Levine

Court Affirms Wiretapping Without Warrants

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/washington/16fisa.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=court%20affirms%20wiretapping&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 8:41 AM
Subject: Court Affirms Wiretapping Without Warrants
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    It is unremarkable that the FISA court has affirmed its obedience to the latest statute from Congress. We look forward to seeing that statute revoked soon. What this ruling neither says nor implies is that warrantless wiretaps were legal in 2001, when the outgoing administration began putting them in place on American citizens. This is the question that awaits our new Attorney General. To demur to prosecute would establish as precedent that our Executive can violate the established law (and our constitutional guarantees) with impunity.

Barry Levine

Torture Acknowledgment Highlights Detainee Issue

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 9:31 AM
Subject: Torture Acknowledgment Highlights Detainee Issue
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Susan Crawford has identified a crime (torture) and a victim (Mohammed al-Qhatani) but somehow speaks of neither a perpetrator nor of a prosecution. If this is how military justice works in the United States, justice doesn't work in the United States.

Barry Levine

Obama Reluctant to Look Into Bush Programs

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/politics/12inquire.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=obama&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 10:24 PM
Subject: re: Obama Reluctant to Look Into Bush Programs
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   President Obama will face many expectations when he takes office. As our leader, he must look to the future; as our chief executive, he must look to our past. Unlike Orwell's 1984, our laws concern crimes committed in the past. As chief executive, it will be his responsibility to see that those laws are enforced. If members of a past administration have put us in violation of our treaty obligations, enforcement is not discretionary. His oath of office binds him to defend and enforce the constitution, including article six; that in turn obliges him to prosecute torture and cruel or inhumane treatment.

Barry Levine

Israel Reminds Foes That It Has Teeth

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/world/middleeast/29assess.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=israeil%20reminds%20foes&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 8:02 AM
Subject: Israel Reminds Foes That It Has Teeth
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
 The program for Israel's strikes in Gaza was written by Hezbollah's
Hassan Nasrallah in 2006. While the rest of the world scolded Israel
for over-reacting to the abduction of two soldiers, Sheik Nasrallah
said If we had known how they would respond, we would not have taken
the soldiers.
Barry Levine

Recruiting the Best

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/opinion/28sun1.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

To the Editor:
 The assertion that the army "must remain an all-volunteer force"

should be challenged on two counts. First, the creation of a career
military creates a warrior caste whose interests will often differ
from those of the nation. Second, it permits the establishment of a
governing caste who can take us to war secure in the knowledge that
their sons and daughters won't bleed in it. Universal conscription
into national service--it must include more than just military
service--is a much better path to a just and cohesive nation.