Angry Young Men From One Town

"The Martyr Factory": Readers were fascinated by the tale of a small Libyan town's disproportionate contribution to the pool of Iraqi suicide bombers. One found Kevin Peraino's cover story "historically interesting, insightful and painfully revealing of the festering, fearful issues that exist in the Middle East today." Another pointed to the "lethal combination of indolence, hopeless economic and marital prospects, and a fanatical religion—where vengeance against the United States, a historic enemy from the Tripolitan wars, buttresses a convenient outlet for these frustrations."

Where Suicide Bombers Come From
"Destination Martyrdom" (April 28) should be required reading for all politicians involved in formulating foreign policy. It clearly illustrates the need to thoroughly understand the history that has influenced the culture of societies we have to deal with. Events that happened 200 years ago in the small Libyan coastal town of Darnah are coming back to haunt us. Think what our children or grandchildren may have to endure from the residual hatred generated by the Iraq War.
Cem Gokcen
Greenville, Ohio

It isn't hard to see why radical Islam is so difficult to understand by those of us in the West. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about world religions, but for the life of me I can't think of a single one where you can become a martyr without having someone else kill you.
Fred Tenbus
Kingsville, Md.

Doctors Suffering From Depression
Prevention is better than a cure, especially when it comes to depression and suicide ("Doctors Who Kill Themselves," April 28). Programs that encourage doctors-in-training to seek help for depression are well intentioned, but they are reactive, not proactive. The brutal training—humiliation, sleep deprivation, overwork, exploitation and incurring huge debt loads—can be traumatizing and a likely factor in poor mental health. Some resilient individuals don't suffer much, while a good many manage to mostly recover, but you couldn't devise a better recipe for high rates of suicide, depression and callous and inhumane attitudes. The shameful training conditions harm physicians, medical practice and—indirectly—all of us.
Anne Peticolas
Austin, Texas

I am a 65-year-old practicing physician who has experienced several episodes of nonsuicidal depression. Promising medical students that depression won't be on their records is the wrong approach. First of all, to fill out one's medical records falsely could lead to misdiagnosis and treatment by one's physicians. Second, it is unethical to withhold such vital information from medical records. When I took time off from my practice, my patients received excellent coverage by my colleagues. On all renewal forms for hospital privileges, state medical licensure, malpractice insurance, etc., I affirmed I had experienced treatable depression without impairment, which was corroborated by my psychiatrist. I informed the medical staff of my situation without any discernible change in my practice. Physicians and medical students should be informed that depression is an illness to which the profession is susceptible, and it is important to seek early treatment. The stigma attached to mental illness by society should be attacked as vigorously as racism or any other despicable bigotry or injustice.
Jerry Frankel, M.D.
Plano, Texas

That Baseball Pitch
Sharon Begley's "Newton in the Batter's Box" (April 28) reminds pitchers that "at higher speeds your fastball will rise much more sharply, and your curve drop more sharply, than scientists thought." The idea of a rising fastball is nonsense. A pitcher may be able to impart enough backspin on his fastball so that the ball falls more slowly than expected and thus appears to rise, but it is not humanly possible to throw a fastball from the raised mound to the plate more than 60 feet away in such a way that it gains altitude as it crosses the plate—unless, of course, the pitch sails over the heads of the batter, catcher and umpire.
David E. Rivera
East Northport, N.Y.