A Winnable War?

The first two paragraphs of "Obama's Vietnam" demonstrate the problems we have not only in Afghanistan but in the region at large. This is both a military and a cultural war. As with Vietnam, we don't really understand the culture we are confronting. Power-hungry imams and mullahs have created a mass of under-educated youth to follow their violent directives. Weapons cannot change beliefs; understanding can. Why not replace our soldiers with people who have some familiarity with the culture and can help bring understanding into a knowledge vacuum and preach cooperation and tolerance to those who have never known it? We will ultimately save more of their lives than our own.
Jeremy Gorman
Wilmington, Vermont

Though Fareed Zakaria's piece was well written, its ideas bordered on cliché. Like it or not, America has few sympathizers in the Muslim world. How can one make a distinction, as he suggests, between the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other Islamist entities such as the Saudi monarchy and Pakistan? Remember, they were on the same side before September 11, 2001. A week later the first two were against America and the others were for it. In the Middle East and South Asia, loyalty may have a price, but religion doesn't. The sooner Washington realizes this, the better.
Gautham Venkata-Chalam
Brussels, Belgium

Israel on the IAEA's Ineffectiveness
The director of the international Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei ("On Nukes, Tread Softly," Feb. 9), has failed to persuade Syria to allow a visit by the IAEA's inspectors to three sites suspected to be part of Syria's covert nuclear program. He has also failed in his feeble demand for a proper investigation of Syria's bulldozing of the wreckage and the cleanup operation at the Dair Alzour site, where Syria is suspected of constructing a North Korean nuclear reactor in clear violation of its Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement with the agency. Instead, ElBaradei lashes out at the state of Israel. Unfortunately, this has become a common practice by the director of the IAEA in his efforts to divert attention from his failure to conduct a vigorous and conclusive investigation amid mounting evidence of gross violations of international obligations under the NPT by some of its Middle Eastern members.

Nili Lifshitz, Spokeswoman
Israeli Atomic Energy Commission
Tel Aviv, Israel

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (" 'We Expect Justice From Now On'," Feb. 9) and IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei take the occasion of their interviews to bash Israel for its actions. Erdogan conveniently forgets how Turkey has responded to Kurdish terrorist attacks against his nation, with a military campaign rendering millions of Kurds homeless and killing thousands. ElBaradei's statement that Israel should have first asked his agency to investigate the nuclear-bomb facility in Syria before taking any action stretches the limits of belief. The IAEA has investigated the Iranian nuclear program for years while that nation gets ever closer to nuclear-bomb capability.
Nelson Marans
Silver Spring, Maryland

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot give moral lessons to Israel. Remember the murder of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1917? The Turks never apologized for the slaughter.
Freddy Mintz
Charlotte, North Carolina

© 2009