U.S. Use of Drones Queried by U.N.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/28nations.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=use%20of%20drones%20queried&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Use of Drones Queried by U.N.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   International law recognizes that uniformed members of our armed forces can and will kill kill enemy combatants on the field of battle; it calls them "soldiers" or "marines" or "airmen" or "sailors". It provides for very different treatment of others who kill. If members of our C.I.A. are killing Pakistani and Afghan citizens, they are unlawful combatants. They are properly called "assassins" or "terrorists" or "murderers".

Barry Levine

Industry Years Behind on Testing Approved Drugs

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/policy/27fda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=years%20behind%20on%20testing%20approved&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Subject: re: Industry Years Behind on Testing Approved Drugs
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Once a therapy has been approved for market, a drug company has scant incentive to complete further ("Phase IV") testing that might show risks of inefficacy.  All the incentives are in the wrong direction. Better to take clinical trials out of industry's hands entirely. Let a third party or the FDA conduct and analyse clinical trials that the drug companies have designed. The current honor system pits the public interest against human nature.

Barry Levine 

Offer Raises Idea of Marriage for Catholic Priests

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/22church.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pope's%20invitation&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Subject: re: Offer Raises Idea of Marriage for Catholic Priests
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If the pope's outreach prompts the most intolerant members of the Anglican clergy to join the Church of Rome, surely it is the Anglicans that will emerge more liberal, more than the Catholics.

Barry Levine

Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/earth/20fossil.html?scp=1&sq=fossil%20fuels'%20hidden%20cost&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Subject: re: Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    After eight years of faith-based policies, it is invigorating to hear the voice of science. Beyond conservation, any forward-looking energy policy has to compare the costs of the various energy sources. No honest comparison can begin by pushing "externalities" off the ledger. Dumping CO2 and mercury into the atmosphere come with burning coal, and those costs must be counted with every kilowatt-hour from coal plants. Likewise the degradation of a river's ecosystem must be counted against hydro-electric power, and the cost of storing radioactive waste for a thousand years must be tallied and counted against the cost of fission power.  

   The cleanest kilowatt-hour is always the one we don't use. Turn down the thermostat in Winter, insulate your home, drive less--and don't pretend to make a comparison of costs until all the energy purveyors are reporting real costs.

Barry Levine

Stanley McChrystal’s Long War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/magazine/18Afghanistan-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=McChrystal&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 5:27 PM
Subject: re: Stanley McChrystal’s Long War
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

     If we are to model our strategy in Afghanistan on our strategy in Iraq, we will have to understand Iraq. We got in there with an ever-changing causus belli, and we are aiming at an ever-changing definition of "success".  The Petraeus strategy did reduce the daily deathtoll, but did so by empowering and arming sectarian militias. These groups will not willingly cede their power to the central government were the U.S. to leave. The result is an Iraq permanently poised for civil war if and when the U. S. forces go home. If this is the model for our strategy in Afghanistan, we are going to need to find a few trillion dollars to sustain our occupation over the coming decades and will need to recruit or draft a few hundred thousand soldiers to carry it out.

Barry Levine

6 Are Killed by Bomber at Funeral in West Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html?scp=2&sq=iraq&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 9:33 PM
Subject: re: 6 Are Killed by Bomber at Funeral in West Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com

- Hide quoted text -

To the Editor:

   General Petraeus' strategy over the last two years drove down the monthly death toll in Iraq by empowering sectarian militias to patrol their own people and territory. The result was a national army that was even more skewed towards the Shiite majority; a Sunni enlisting in the army rather than a Sunni militia faced accusations of disloyalty to his own people. This has produced an Iraq poised for civil war if the U.S. troops as the U.S. troops leave. If we are to blame president Obama, it is only for keeping on the architects of Bush's poison-pill strategy.

Barry Levine

House Votes to Expand Hate Crimes Definition

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/us/politics/09hate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=house%20vote%20says%20antigay&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 8:45 AM
Subject: re: House Votes to Expand Hate Crimes Definition
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Representative Boehner contradicts long-established American jurisprudence when he argues against considering intent in defining a crime. In doing so, he puts himself into a pretty rhetorical box. It is established that the U.S. under president George Bush waterboarded detainees, that waterboarding is torture, that torture is both illegal and a War Crime and that responsibility rests with the president. The only barrier to trying and convicting Mr. Bush for a War Crime is the argument that--on the advice of an incompetent Office of Legal Counsel--the authorized criminal acts without criminal intent.

Barry Levine

Swiss Health Care Thrives Without Public Option

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/health/policy/01swiss.html?scp=1&sq=swiss%20model&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Subject: re: Swiss Health Care Thrives Without Public Option
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    It is good and prudent that we are assessing other countries' healthcare solutions before we commit to our own. If we are to copy a system from elsewhere, we want to do it honestly and with our eyes open. It is therefore with alarm that I find no mention in the article that Swiss Insurance Companies are non-profit organizations. For lack of a detail like that, our whole national wealth could be routed into the hands of our insurers.

Barry Levine

Several Afghan Strategies, None a Clear Choice

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/world/asia/01policy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=possible%20strategies%20for%20afghanistan&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Subject: re: Several Afghan Strategies, None a Clear Choice
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   What the U.S. learned in Vietnam is still lost on (British) major general Peter Gilchrist. "Insurgents continue to maneuver around us and set I.E.D.'s which kill our people" not because we have too few troops, but because the populace tolerates them. It is easy and predictable for a military leader to argue that he would have succeeded if only he had been given more troops. Until we convince the Afghan people that the NATO forces are going to make their lives better, and then leave Afghanistan to the Afghans, the insurgency cannot be defeated by any number of troops.

Barry Levine