Spike in U.S. Deaths in Iraq Raises Worries

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 11:02 AM
Subject: re: Spike in U.S. Deaths in Iraq Raises Worries
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    No one should doubt that Moqtada al-Sadr will remobilize his mahdi army if the U.S. doesn't pull out of Iraq on schedule. Nor should we doubt that he will mobilize his mahdi army when we do pull out. The Iraqi civil war is merely on hold, We can keep out finger in that dike a while longer--at the cost of American lives and billions of dollars--or pull it out. But what comes next is civil war in either case. I can't imagine that any American mother wants to send her son to die for such a paltry benefit.

Barry Haskell Levine

Those Manly Men of Yore

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/opinion/17lipton.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 12:01 PM
Subject: re: Those Manly Men of Yore
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The idea that womanizing is a vice of the immature isn't an innovation of late antiquity. Twenty eight centuries ago, Homer contrasted Paris with his own brother, Hector. Whereas Paris was an object of scorn for embroiling Troy in a ruinous war to serve his libido, Hector is portrayed as a great warrior, great king, great father, and great husband. Overall, he's the best man in the Iliad. For those without the attention span to read Homer, Robin Williams summarized the lesson: "God showed her sense of humor when she gave Man both a brain and a penis but only enough blood to operate one or the other at a time."

Barry Levine

Pakistan’s Chief of Army Fights to Keep His Job

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/world/asia/16pakistan.html?_r=1&ref=ashfaqparvezkayani

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 9:58 PM
Subject: re: Pakistan’s Chief of Army Fights to Keep His Job
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  For too long--first as head of ISI and now as head of Pakistan's military--general Ashfaq Kayani has accepted billions in U.S. aid while sheltering the Haqqani network, Lashgar e Taiba and Osama bin Laden.  That others in the Pakistani military are more hostile to the U.S. scarcely seems relevant. As long as we underwrite general Kayani's double game, every American taxpayer is a sponsor of terror.Every dollar and every life we spend in this relationship makes us less secure and not more.  The people of Pakistan have crying needs for foreign aid to build literacy and infrastructure.Building Pakistan's military is not in our interest.

Barry Levine

Blocking Elizabeth Warren

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/opinion/11nocera.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=blocking%20Elizabeth%20Warren&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 10:12 AM
Subject: re: Blocking Elizabeth Warren
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If president Obama hasn't the spine to nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she should be nominated instead to fill his office in 2012. To be an effective president requires both vision and balls. It's increasingly clear that Ms. Warren is the best man for the job.

Barry Levine

Where Wisdom Lives

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/opinion/07brooks.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=where%20wisdom%20lives&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 8:32 AM
Subject: re: Where Wisdom Lives
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Through David Brooks' looking-glass, giving powers of life and death to big corporations and taking it from public servants would be a move towards empowering the people.  Those who can get their heads around that will have no trouble swallowing the argument that the PATRIOT act safeguards Americans' freedom from unreasonable search. As George Orwell might have put it, the logic is double plus ungood.

Barry Haskell Levine

Complex Case Ahead for Prosecutors

http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=complex+case+ahead&srchst=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 8:02 AM
Subject: re: Complex Case Ahead for Prosecutors
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   After two and a half years of "looking forwards and not backwards", the Obama Department of Justice is finally engaging in law enforcement. This is welcome; it is in the past, of course that evidence of wrongdoing will be found. Yet it is troubling that the department's finite resources are allocated to prosecuting senator Edwards.  Edwards admits that he broke faith with his wife and with his backers, but that's not a crime. On the other hand, we know that men were waterboarded while in U.S. custody, that waterboarding is torture and that torture is a crime.  The role of money in our political campaigns needs to be redefined, but that is a matter for the Congress and the courts. Attorney General Holder needs to be prosecuting war crimes and not a senator's amorous adventures.

Barry Levine

The Depravity Factor

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03brooks.html?scp=2&sq=david%20brooks&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 3:14 PM
Subject: re: The Depravity Factor
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The Assad regime continues to visit horrors on the people of Syria. Until it is toppled, much will not be right in that part of the world. The governments of Israel and Syria will remain formally at war as they have for 63 years. That can in no way absolve Israel from  making peace with the Palestinians.  The Syrian people deserves a better government and I hope that that government will finally negotiate a peace with Israel.  But ousting Bashar al-Assad will no more bring peace to the region than did ousting Saddam Hussein. That will require leadership on the Israeli side as well.

Barry Levine