TERRORISTS AT SEA
Correspondence TERRORISTS AT SEA SETH CROPSEY wrote in his article “Don’t Give Up the Ships” (November 19) that “No terrorists have struck from the sea.” This will be news to the United States...
...NAME WITHHELD PONDERING POVERTY JOEL SCHWARTZ’s review of my book The Persistence of Poverty (“Poverty of Ideas,” November 5) is generally fair and accurate, as one would expect from Schwartz...
...Navy PC, the Firebolt, successfully stopped a terrorist attack on an Iraqi oil platform...
...However, Schwartz says that I support the main hypothesis of the book (that the marginal utility of defi cient consumption is increasing, not diminishing) only by a questionable analogy between poor people and people suffering from bee stings...
...NOW, THAT’S THE TICKET WILLIAM KRISTOL offered great advice in his editorial that suggested the Republican presidential nominee (unless it’s pro-choice Rudy Giuliani) should consider running on a ticket with Joe Lieberman as vice president (“Say It’s So, Joe,” November 19...
...Further examples include the attack on the Achille Lauro, in which one American was killed in 1985, as well as the ongoing operations of Islamic (and sometimes overtly al Qaeda affi liated) high seas pirates off the African coast, in the Strait of Malacca, and in the Philippine archipelago...
...As support for the war diminished, their respect disappeared at a proportional rate...
...This will be news to the United States Navy, which has been the target of at least two recent attempted seaborne terrorist attacks, one of them successful...
...But I think by the second half America would follow their lead in breaking up the status quo of Washington politics...
...GEORGIA ON OUR MINDS IRAKLY ARESHIDZE is right to criticize Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s decision to declare a 15day state of emergency in Georgia and shut down the independent TV station Imedi (“The Bloom is Off the Rose Revolution,” November 26...
...GARY SCHMITT Washington, D.C...
...I will never forget those shipmates of mine who lost their lives there...
...But none approached the scope of the 9/11 attacks...
...Cropsey may have forgotten al Qaeda’s attack-by-sea that nearly sunk the USS Cole and killed 17 of her crew in 2000, but I suspect most Americans have not...
...Readers of THE WEEKLY STANDARD might like to know that I don’t rest my case on this analogy at all...
...In addition I devote numerous pages to exposing the false reasoning that supports the contrary, textbook thesis (that the marginal utility of consumption for poor people is diminishing...
...It certainly couldn’t get worse...
...Instead of arguing about whether the behavior of the poor is truly at odds with the textbook defi nition of economic rationality or only seemingly at odds with that defi nition, we should be questioning the validity of the textbook defi nition of economic rationality itself...
...I watched it happen daily, weekly, monthly and then yearly...
...Had that attack, as well as those that preceded it, been treated as acts of war—rather than as crimes—the chances of a large-scale 9/11 attack would have been greatly diminished...
...The list of terrorists who have “struck from the sea” must include the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg, which killed one merchant sailor and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden...
...Finally I show that my hypothesis makes sense of the behavior more parsimoniously than the alternatives...
...SETH CROPSEY’s claim that terrorists have not “struck from the sea” implies that the Navy is not involved in any maritime actions in Iraq, but this is simply not true...
...The United States Navy was created to combat Islamic terrorism on the high seas, and today our Navy fi nds itself increasingly engaged in a renewed fi ght against Islamic terrorists and allied pirates who still seek to strike from the sea...
...Should the United States and Europe do more to deepen the democratic gains there...
...Not only have the high seas been an important front for terrorist activity and attacks, the oceans remain the last line of defense against terrorists seeking to detonate a potential atomic weapon in the United States...
...His admission that their “results are often less than satisfactory” glosses over the fact that psychiatrists themselves often bring on those disturbances...
...I am not speaking of malingering, but of the tendency to cling to mental problems to keep disability checks coming in...
...CARL E. BEGLEY Jacksonville, Fla...
...But part of that process must also include an opposition that is principled, not personality driven, and willing to adhere to constitutional norms themselves...
...The attack on the USS Cole in October 2000—as I argued publicly at the time—was an act of war directed against U.S...
...so these basics at insuffi cient levels have increasing marginal impact...
...I watched it happen...
...You may also fax letters: (202) 293-4901 or email: editor@weeklystandard.com...
...SETH CROPSEY RESPONDS: These criticisms are fair: There have been several terrorist incidents at sea...
...Only the United States Navy and Coast Guard stand in the way of a nuclear-armed terrorist who intends to explode his bomb in Los Angeles, Washington, New York, Chicago, or even Duluth, all cities which can be reached by oceangoing vessels...
...Such a device would almost certainly have to reach the North American continent by sea...
...Please do not publish my full name for security reasons...
...CAROL HEBALD New York, N.Y...
...They were in awe of us...
...I was, and am still, a Bush supporter...
...TREATING MENTAL ILLNESS WILLIAM ANDERSON’s review of Thomas Szasz’s book Coercion as Cure is excellent (“Insanity Defense,” November 12...
...R. SCOTT ROGERS Alexandria, Va...
...military whose duty took them in harm’s way...
...I then chose the more diffi cult path of discernment, doing the best I could to make accurate diagnoses of mental illness...
...Those who read him carefully will fi nd guidelines for what to avoid in a psychiatrist...
...And what of the seaborne smuggling of weapons among Middle Eastern terrorist groups and proliferators, as demonstrated by the Karine-A incident and the interdiction of North Korean merchant vessels carrying advanced ballistic missiles to rogue regimes...
...I served my last tour in the Navy operating in Iraqi waters at sea and up and down Iraq’s rivers...
...In the sixties I was temporarily taken in by Szasz’s The Myth of Mental Illness, but within several years I outgrew that immature stage of my professional development as a psychologist...
...Kudos to Senator Lieberman for his bold speech and to Kristol for bringing it to attention...
...It would be either the birth of, or the alternative to, a third party...
...I returned this year from three years working as a civilian with the police in Iraq where I had become as angry with the Republican party as I was with the Democrats...
...They would be a lame duck administration from day one, and very little would get done during the fi rst half of their term while both sides fought each other in the White House...
...Thomas Szasz likes to say hard things plainly...
...In April of 2004, a U.S...
...However, I stand by my point that Americans generally are not aware of the Navy’s contribution to the current Middle Eastern wars, and the Navy leadership’s rightful concerns about this would be better addressed by reminding the nation of the Navy’s broad and enduring strategic value— which has long included crisis response and humanitarian assistance—than by redefi ning maritime strategy as a cooperative venture aimed at preventing confl ict...
...it was the lack of support here at home that actually turned the tide over there...
...While I still consider myself a Republican and vote that way, I think for the good of the nation there needs to be a dramatic shift in the political paradigm...
...Iraqis, and everyone in the Middle East for that matter, don’t follow whom they like...
...I have been saying for over two years the best ticket for America would be McCain/Lieberman...
...He has made several mistakes along the way, but I believe he was and remains on the right path overall...
...Naturally, his views are unpopular: He has taken a courageous stance in exposing certain past and present psychiatric abuses, and by so doing, rendered an invaluable service to troubled people in search of competent professional help...
...ANTHONY BUCH Oak Harbor, Wash...
...I am scheduled to redeploy to either Afghanistan or Iraq in January 2008...
...In the beginning we had their respect...
...Absolutely...
...As to the question of how (and what if anything to prescribe), few seem to agree about much of anything except that we need them...
...Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer’s name, address, and phone number...
...In a nutshell, I show that defi cits of these basics bring troubles, and troubles (like other stimuli) have diminishing marginal impact...
...A mixed ticket of two middle of the road candidates may do the trick...
...CHARLES KARELIS Washington, D.C...
...I was on the ground as the politics of the war in Washington adversely affected the actual war in Iraq in numerous ways...
...It’s time for a revision of conventional microeconomics...
...No one, including Szasz, denies that psychiatrists want to help us...
...Later I took on the even more diffi cult issues of subtle differentiation of authentic impairment from use of diagnosis as excuses by patients seeking the benefi ts of disability...
...I do not argue by analogy in these pages, but rather I remind readers of experiences that will be immediately familiar to them...
...Coast Guardsman Nathan Bruckenthal and sailors Michael Pernaselli and Christopher Watts were all killed or died later from wounds infl icted upon them in this attack...
...IN HIS wholesale dismissal of Thomas Szasz’s work, William Anderson writes the following: “Psychiatrists try to apply scientifi c medicine in the service of ameliorating disturbances of thinking, feeling, and action brought about by disturbances of brain function...
...All letters should be addressed: Correspondence Editor THE WEEKLY STANDARD 1150 17th St., NW, Suite 505 Washington, DC 20036...
...Shame on all politicians of either stripe that sold us out for their own careers...
...The mistakes he made weren’t the biggest problems for the war...
...THE WEEKLY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor...
...For one thing, I devote a number of pages to showing that such basic goods as living space, transportation, leisure, and opportunities to participate in community life have increasing marginal utility when these goods are being used or consumed at insuffi cient levels...
...America is in the middle of the wrong debate about poverty...
...While most of that politicking was dished out by the Democrats, many Republicans folded when it came time to hold fi rm—all in the name of election or reelection...
...I think he was the right man at the right time and took a bold risk when he chose to liberate Iraq—our only real option in order to prosecute the war on terror...
...But comparing Saakashvili to the likes of “the strongmen leading Pakistan, Venezuela, and Russia” shows a lack of judgment about what real despots are like and a failure to appreciate Georgia’s progress in advancing civil rights, fi ghting corruption, and getting the country going economically since the revolution...
...They follow whom they respect or in many cases fear...
Vol. 13 • December 2007 • No. 12
