The Bible and Gay Marriage

In "Know The Limits of U.S. Power," Prof. John Mearsheimer, on the subject of the Middle East, advocates a strategy that he calls "offshore balancing." Although the idea sounds interesting, two of the interrelated examples that he cites in support of the idea are far from being indicative of success. They are the Iran-Iraq War and Iraq's conquest of Kuwait. Mearsheimer does not seem to acknowledge the devastating effects of U.S. assistance to Saddam Hussein and the relationship of American policy to those catastrophic events. Close to 1 million estimated casualties on both sides, in the longest war in recent history, cannot be claimed to be a victory for pursuing an offshore-balancing strategy.
Sattar Farzan
Falls Church, Va.

Paying Afghan warlords to fight terrorism has not been effective in the past. In the 1980s, the United States provided the warlords (the then mujahedin) with cash and weapons to kick the Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. The Taliban and Osama bin Laden took their place. Then, in 2001, bin Laden & Co. were surrounded in the Tora Bora mountains. The United States did exactly what Prof. Andrew J. Bacevich recommends in "Think Again: What's Our Definition of Victory?"—it outsourced his capture to the Afghan warlords. They took money from both the United States and Al Qaeda and then let bin Laden escape to Pakistan. For the war against terrorism to be effective, the Pakistanis must be forced to deal with terrorism. In Afghanistan, the United States and its allies must withdraw support from Hamid Karzai and his allies. It is the lack of government control, high unemployment and disenchantment with the corrupt, inept Karzai government, coupled with financial assistance from the insurgency, that enables terrorists to operate freely in the countryside and small towns. Thus, in Afghanistan, narcotics must be eradicated for nation-building to be effective. Regionally, the United States must work to focus Pakistan on supporting the antiterrorism efforts on the borders and work with Iran to calm the waters. A solution, while not instant, is at least possible over time.
Ehsan Entezar
Modesto, Calif.

Drug Violence on Our Doorstep
Neither Mexico nor the United States has many "drug-related shootings" ("Bloodshed on the Border," Dec. 8).What both Mexico and the United States do have is lots of drug-prohibition-related violent crime. It absolutely will get worse until we end the ban on drugs. Seventy-five years ago, our great-grandfathers regained their sanity and relegalized a different drug, alcohol.
Kirk Muse
Mesa, Ariz.

The crime, corruption and overdose deaths attributed to illegal drugs are invariably the results of drug prohibition. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gunned each other down in violent turf battles. Drug prohibition funds organized crime at home and terrorism abroad, which is then used to justify increased drug-war spending. It's time to end this madness and instead treat all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public-health problem it is.
Robert Sharpe
Common Sense for Drug Policy
Washington, D.C.

Not in Jackie O ' s Shadow
Having grown to adolescence during the Kennedy years, I agree with historian Carl Anthony that Michelle Obama and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis have little in common, but I also recognize that "youth, beauty and little kids running around" is far from being an "aside from" consideration ("Very Little in Common But That 'O'," PERISCOPE, Dec. 8). The excitement many older boomers and seniors feel at the prospect of a beautiful family with delightful little girls moving into the White House is very much like what we felt during the Kennedy era. No, it's not the second coming of the Camelot mythology. This is so historic and precedent-setting that there is really nowhere to look for comparison. But it does recall that feeling of something so new and vibrant afoot.
Felice Sage
Littleton, Colo.

Al Gore on Global Warming
Calling Al Gore "the world's most prominent environmentalist on carbon taxes, clean coal and the dangers of illusion" is ironic because it continues the illusion of Gore's theme that a very minor greenhouse gas—carbon dioxide—is driving global warming ("Don't Count On Magic," Dec. 8). Most media, Al Gore, some of the U.N.Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others have avoided the overwhelming evidence that the rise of carbon dioxide follows the rise of temperature. There have been 10 major glacial and interglacial periods in the past million years. We are currently in an interglacial period with continued warming. Global warming is not entirely bad. The carbon tax will do great harm to the economy for invalid reasons.
C. Kent Chamberlain
Idaho Falls, Idaho

I appreciate the interview with Al Gore, but as usual, Gore isn't talking about one of the biggest things we can do to cut carbon emissions: eat less meat! Eighteen percent of greenhouse gases come from the production of meat in this country. Real environmentalists don't eat meat!
Kecia Talbot
San Rafael, Calif.

Clarification
In our Dec. 1 story "What Michelle Means to Us" we said that Michelle Obama would grace the March cover of Vogue. While Vogue has in fact been in discussions with her representatives about appearing on the magazine's cover, both sides now say no cover appearance has been confirmed.

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