Correspondence
Correspondence MEMO MADNESS IN "ABOUT THAT MEMO ..." (Dec. 8), the editors ask why the Bush administration has ignored, even denied, the possible links between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Osama bin...
...GORDON KRAUS Clarksville, TN SWEETEST DECLINE CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL'S "The Decline of France" (Dec...
...What air force on the planet will be able to defeat our current fleets of F-15s, F-16s, and F/A-18s...
...The "just-in-time" model of planning works okay for Wal-Mart...
...For example, Thomas M. Disch's Prisoner novel was not the origin of the television series of the same name, but was instead a "tie-in" novel dealing with the characters and plot of Patrick McGoohan's cult TV series...
...I'm also especially glad that the IRS went out of its way (and spent taxpayer dollars) to tell me who was responsible for the money that it would be so pleased to be sending me...
...I hadn't realized the IRS had feelings, but I'm certainly happy it is so pleased...
...At the same time, the Department of Defense seems to think that it is somehow too expensive to increase the number of infantry battalions in the force structure...
...SIDNEY BROUNSTEIN Redlands, CA THIS IS NOT A PARODY I LOVED THE PARODY on the new prescription drug card (Dec...
...on the other hand, when among Muslims, you would speak in a radical tone, and encourage all the behaviors whose existence you have publicly denied...
...I also had never before received an advance letter from the IRS telling me that I would be getting money in the near future...
...It was published, as I understand, some years after the series first aired...
...8), which arrived in my mailbox just a couple of days after a letter from the IRS that said the IRS was "pleased to inform" me that "the United States Congress has passed and President George W. Bush has signed into law the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003," and that I would soon receive a check for $400 per child...
...And then I saw the Parody...
...In the last 400 years, France barely escaped a catastrophic loss in the Thiry Years War by fortuitous political developments, and then proceeded to lose the seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars (twice), the Mexican War, the Franco-prussian War, the First World War, the Second World War, the war in Vietnam, and, finally, its 1956 war over the Suez Canal...
...Life imitating art...
...Assuming, of course, that there is evidence to present...
...of course, I must admit that it is probably not done that often . . . MARK OWINGS Baltimore, MD WAR GAMES AS A RETIRED ARMY OFFICER, I cannot agree more with Tom Donnelly and Vance Serchuk's misgivings, expressed in their "Preparing to Fight the Next War," about the direction of the Department of Defense's plans for military "transformation" (Dec...
...It would not surprise if the smooth-talking Ramadan were a practitioner of takiya...
...8), though I do have some minor quibbles...
...However, in his summary of the activities of Tariq Ramadan, the Muslim intellectual and activist, Caldwell could have mentioned a term that French Muslims know well: takiya...
...I wonder about our priorities...
...A military planner can't be certain of who, what, when, or even where...
...It is explained in Mes freres assassins: Comment j'ai infiltre une cellule d'Al-Qaida (2003) by Mohamed sifaoui...
...The Department of Defense continues to look for false economies while spending billions to build two new generations of combat jets (the F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter) and to operate a fleet larger than the rest of the world's navies combined...
...I have done it twice myself...
...JAMES RAYMOND Las Vegas, NV AFTER READING Christopher Caldwell's impressive "The Decline of France," I find it very hard to imagine that France could still be declining...
...COREY L. GORDON Minneapolis, MN BOTTUM'S UP I ENJOYED J. BOTTUM'S COLUMN on new books worth giving this Christmas (The Standard Reader, Dec...
...The short answer, I think, is timing...
...France reached its high point with the Norman invasion of England, and otherwise had a brief flare-up during the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century...
...8), the editors ask why the Bush administration has ignored, even denied, the possible links between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda...
...Wal-Mart knows with certainty where its stores are, has a pretty good idea about which products will be shipped, and waits to see when and how much to send...
...If you accept the premise that a politician's primary objective is to stay in office, then it is easy to see why revelation and substantiation of the links between Saddam and osama, as well as the disclosure of Iraq's currently missing WMD stocks, would be better for the president if they were revealed closer to the 2004 presidential election...
...Takiya is the practice of saying one thing to non-Muslims and quite the opposite to Muslim audiences...
...How will attack submarines help in the war on terror...
...When talking to the French press, you speak in a moderate tone and try to play down fears about radical Islam...
...GARY KNIGHT Fort Leavenworth, KS...
...8) gives an excellent analysis of contemporary France...
...Also, somewhat to my chagrin, I must point out that it is certainly not true that no one has read a concordance straight through from beginning to end...
Vol. 9 • December 2003 • No. 15
