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

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

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

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

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

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

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