YTPME

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Left is not right

Sir-- Democrats and some Republicans in Congress are seeking to humble, embarrass and, if they can, destroy the president and the prestige of his position as the commander-in-chief who is responsible for the safety of our military forces and the nation's defences. By doing so, they are adding to the dangers that face our nation. And so I ask them: do you think that leaving a power vacuum in Iraq will make us safer? If, as a result of the power vacuum, the terrorists are emboldened and God forbid we sustain here in the US civilian casualties comparable to those caused in Iraq by car bombs, will you publicly accept responsibility?

Of course they won't.

The left's current consensus view on terrorism and Iraq ('Victory is not an option') is just plain wrong and cannot be justified or supported by the facts that are available. Their rhetoric is designed to obfuscate and deny objective reality, which interestingly they don't even believe in to begin with (or, they believe in it until it becomes threatening, then they seek refuge behind post-modern political rhetoric). The motivation for their continual Bush/ Republican bashing is simple: Bush is the current symbol of the left's ideological demise as it is tossed into the trash bin of history. He is the fly in their utopian ointment, the light shining in their darkness.

In spite of the 2006 mid-term elections which saw Democrats obtain a small majority in Congress, life has actually been going very badly for the left. As the real world presses in on them, their voices have become more shrill and hysterical; their rage is escalating out of control. No longer do most of them even bother to argue their points logically; they simply loudly denounce any idea or person who threatens their ideology; or deliberately and with the ruthless finesse of all tyrants and thugs, simply attempt to suppress all dissenting opinions.

Since their objectives dovetail nicely with those of the terrorists, they have made common cause with them and have not lost many opportunities to enable and encourage them, even as they denounce America and the principles of freedom and democracy out of one side of their mouth, while remaining convinced that their actions are patriotic and are representative of "true" American values.

Lawrence Berry Jr
Maine
USA

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Still illegal

Sir-- In 'Who is the enemy?' ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 22-28 May) Walberg asks, "Is it possible the chaos and murder is intentional?" No. For a conspiracy theory to be credible, the plan mustn't be too complicated (something always goes wrong!) and there mustn't be too many people in on the secret. (somebody always blabs!)

Re the question of the extradition of Bin Laden. The position in public international law is that countries are required to extradite except in three cases: their own nationals, fiscal offences and political offences. There is no denying that the offence Bin Laden was charged with was political and the Afghan government was thus perfectly within its rights in refusing to extradite him. Moreover, the US government never actually applied for extradition in proper legal form. They just ordered the Afghan government to hand him over. Finally, no rule of public international law permits a country which has been refused extradition, even wrongfully, to invade the refusing country.

Lastly, even if it suits the Israelis to have their neighbours fighting among themselves, they can do nothing without American money, and the US economy is collapsing. Thus, what Israel (or, indeed, the US) would like, hardly matters.

Max Kruel
Florida
USA

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Victims of Israeli terrorism

Sir-- The best antidote to the poison, the best cure for the virus, that you have identified as infecting Western politics ('Political poison', Al-Ahram Weekly, 3-9 April) would be a strong dose of the truth about the assassination attempts by Irgun against two British foreign secretaries -- Anthony Eden and Ernest Bevin -- in 1946, and the "successful" attempt on America's first secretary of defence, James Forrestal, in 1949. The letter bombs sent to the former were fortunately intercepted. All three were outspoken critics of the founding of Israel in 1948 as a Jewish state and suffered accordingly. That these revelations should be so determinedly ignored by our opinion-molding community is a measure of their power.

David Martin
Hartford
USA

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Democratic disgrace

Sir-- I have followed the controversy over the publishing of newspaper articles and drawings which hurt Muslim sentiments. I find the cartoons which were first published in Denmark, and reprinted in Norway and Sweden to be a disgrace to our democracies. In today's world it is important to bridge differences between nations and cultures. But the actions of the Scandinavian journalists who willfully published material which they knew would hurt the sentiments of even moderate Muslims, will only increase the already existing mistrust between the West and Muslim nations.

Ingrid Johansen
Bergen
Norway