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Niall Ferguson's vision of 9/11 from the perspective of 25 years hence was fascinating [Sept. 11]. He was wise to note that elections are not a panacea for the problems of the Islamic world. Ferguson's vision of the U.S. restored to relevance by old-fashioned economic transformation was compelling. We face the challenge of combatting Islamic terrorism while creating a sustainable world economy. We must be able to meet current needs while preserving adequate resources and the environment for our grandchildren. Our economic goals may seem less urgent, but failing to meet them could be disastrous and create more problems than losing the war on terrorism.
Chris Wiegard
Chester, Virginia, U.S.

"No question, 9/11 was an act of war," said Ferguson. Actually, 9/11 was mass murder, and it should have been treated as mainly a challenge for the police and intelligence services. Interpreting the 9/11 attacks as an act of war demanding military reprisal has only helped up the ante of violence throughout the world.
Robert Malcolmson
Cobourg, Canada

The idea that the U.S. could help the development of democracy in Muslim countries by sending troops, as it did in Iraq, sounds like a strategy Stalin would have used. But after World War II, it was the economic support provided by the U.S. through the Marshall Plan that saved countries like Italy from becoming communist states. Bolstering the economies of Muslim countries striving for democracy would have been a better response than exporting war.
Maurizio Muraca
Rome

"The Nation That Fell to Earth" was helpfully provocative. Ferguson reminded us that geopolitical landscapes evolve through the interaction of many seemingly unrelated factors. Although it is impossible to predict the ultimate influence of 9/11 on the balance of international power, the article reminded us that if the U.S. is to remain politically and economically strong, it must focus on more than fighting global terrorism. My only disappointment with Ferguson's article was in his dismissal of the problem of climate change. Global warming has the potential to reshape the geopolitical landscape and cannot be ignored.
Katherine Richardson Christensen
Arhus, Denmark

Niall Ferguson leaves some important things unsaid in his backward look from 2031. Large, well-educated Muslim populations around the globe support democracy and would like, with or without America's war for it, to see it take sustainable roots in their nations. But many of them are not attracted to the cultural-economic box in which the sponsored democracy comes packaged. Only a few world leaders have had the courage to go straight to the heart of the matter: the birth and intensity of this century's irrational militancy has less to do with the absence of democracy than with desperate anger at the stranglehold of a long, unjust Middle East policy. Although it is still a decade away, one hopes that Ferguson's prophecy of peace in the ravaged region through mass-produced fuel-cell engines comes true!
Abbas Khan
Islamabad

Changing the Middle East
Calling Max Boot's "Second Opinion" rebuttal of Ferguson's story an example of straw-man argumentation would be an insult to straw men everywhere [Sept. 11]. No credible analyst of the Middle East believes that democracy is not preferable to the tyranny of Islamic fundamentalism. The debate is over tactics. Perhaps the only human attribute more powerful than the yearning for democracy is the loathing of political change wrought at gunpoint. Boot's signal example of democracy's triumph over tyranny is the collapse of the Soviet Empire. But that victory was not achieved by U.S. forces unilaterally storming the gates of the Kremlin and tearing down the statue of Lenin. Rather, the Soviet Union rotted from within, abetted by a sensible and hard-nosed policy of political, economic and military containment by a true multinational coalition. If democracy flourishes in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East, it will be in spite of the Bush doctrine, not because of it.
Jeff Timberlake
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

Boot's article was just another example of neoconservative naiveté. According to Boot, all the U.S. has to do to rid itself of terrorists is find a list of nondemocratic countries that support jihadists and set the people of those countries free with democracy. In fact, Iraqis may not vote themselves free from sectarian violence, and Iranian people, if liberated, may not want to give up access to nuclear resources. The U.S., after several years of failure, should have learned that those issues have to be dealt with in a pragmatic, case-by-case manner.
Hanting Teng
Taipei

The 9/11 Skeptics
Re "Why the 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away" [Sept. 11]: Your story's idea—that millions of Americans (36%, according to the poll cited) who question the official explanation of what happened on 9/11 are simply unable to deal with the magnitude of the atrocity and the randomness of life—was dismissive and shallow. What about those of us who simply approach life with a healthy dose of skepticism? I would feel much more optimistic about our nation if more people questioned what happened on 9/11. If people had been a little more skeptical, maybe we would have questioned whether Iraq really had WMD, whether the war and reconstruction would pay for themselves and whether 130,000 troops were enough. Maybe we would have questioned the need to elect George W. Bush to a second term.
Ryan Gielen
New York City

Is it one-third of Americans who are delusional, as your story suggested, or is it actually two-thirds? You admitted that there was "a lack of identifiable plane wreckage" at the Pentagon crash site yet asserted that "the remains of all but one [of the passengers] have been identified." Does TIME have a theory that explains why two-thirds of Americans are untroubled by such an outrageous contradiction?
Paul Holme
Paranaque, the Philippines

I was disappointed by the reporting on the conspiracy theories. Too many pieces of evidence about 9/11 cannot be explained within the framework of the official version. Where are the Watergate sleuths Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein when we really need them?
Inge Drucks
Breckerfeld, Germany

Conspiracy theorists know they have nothing. Press them for solid proof, and they claim they are just asking questions. Most conspiracies follow the same pattern. All evidence and expert testimony backing up the official story is "fake" or "planted," while the lack of evidence backing up the conspiracy theory is merely "proof" that the evidence is being covered up. With no structural engineers or demolition experts backing up the conspiracy nonsense, the theorizers rely instead on a cast of characters who are nuttier than squirrel dung. They make for good comedy, if nothing else.
Jan Burton
Toronto

Americans in the World
Compliments to TIME's managing editor Richard Stengel for his editorial, "One Thing We Need To Do" [Sept. 11]. Unlike the other articles in TIME on the aftermath of 9/11, his was the only one that raised some fundamental questions. When violence is countered by violence, regression is fighting regression. It is a double step backward. The question is not what we are willing to kill for but, as Gandhi said, what we are willing to die for. Nineteen young men answered that question in a terrible manner on 9/11; the passengers of Flight 93 answered it in a diametrically opposed, compassionate and extraordinarily caring manner. Both answers need to be analyzed and discussed and the results taught to every one of our youngsters. That is the only way we will eventually create a better world.
Michel Mortier
Zug, Switzerland

TIME's managing editor, Richard Stengel, was right—Americans should give more thought to foreign policy. Furthermore, it is not good enough for the U.S., the self-appointed world's policeman, to reflect on what constitutes its own values and interests. The policeman should either reflect on the values and interests of the policed world—not necessarily the same as his—or stop being the policeman nobody has asked him to be. The polar opposites of isolationism and interventionism are not the only options. There is also the option of participating in world politics on an equal footing with other nations. Meanwhile, anti-Americanism is unfortunately growing where the U.S. would not expect it.
Rainer Lau
Brussels

Minding Her Manners
In her review of the Tuscan hotel L'Andana [Sept. 4], Catherine Mayer says the general manager might remember her as "the Guest from Hell: high maintenance, capricious and, quite frankly, badly behaved." She adds, "I was only doing my job." But was it really necessary for her to engage in the absolutely obnoxious behavior she went on to describe? I'm sure that by the time she and her companions got through with the staff and management of L'Andana, the smug trio left behind more than a few bad feelings. I have close friends who own a bed-and-breakfast and can tell you that guests who push the limits are not welcomed back.
Robert Heylmun
Florence, Italy

Most travel writers are overly indulgent in their praise of the hotels they visit—and often boring. Mayer, on the contrary, definitely wants to be noticed. I was shocked by her misbehavior at L'Andana and can only imagine the utter disgust of the hotel's other guests and staff. I suspect that, as Mayer reported, L'Andana's well-trained sommelier smartly guided Mayer and her company away from the most valued wines, knowing full well that serving it to them would have been throwing pearls before swine.
Janie Berquist Phellipon
St. Denis-La Chevasse, France

A Most Sacred Game
"It's Not Just Cricket" [Sept. 4] discussed the allegation that the Pakistani team had tampered with the ball during a Test match with England. Oh, Pakistanis, you can do anything—you can ridicule my government, you can scorn my religion, and you can even step on my blue suede shoes. But, please, do not force the holy gem of cricket into disrepute by ball tampering and match fixing.
Pam Howe
Idar-Oberstein, Germany

Cairo's Spinner of Tales
The Arab world's most prominent literary figure, Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, died last month at age 94. TIME profiled the author in 1988 after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature [Oct. 24, 1988]:

"In nearly 40 novels and a dozen story collections, [Mahfouz] has dealt with the social and political upheavals Egypt has experienced during his lifetime. His main contribution, says Sasson Somekh, a visiting professor of Arabic literature at Princeton, is the 'creation of a new Egyptian style' that combines the narrative manner of classic texts such as The Thousand and One Nights with contemporary subject matter ... Retired in 1971 from his post as an adviser to the Minister of Culture, he spends most of his time in cafés, drinking coffee and exchanging gossip. HE IS ALSO KNOWN AS ONE OF THE BEST JOKE TELLERS IN CAIRO, no small compliment in a land noted for its wit ... He supported Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1952 coup d'état but gradually grew disillusioned with the colonel's policies. 'It is true that the revolution liberated the Egyptian people and pushed them into modern life,' says Mahfouz, 'but it led to many wars that tired us out.' Mahfouz found himself at the center of controversy in 1979 when he publicly backed Anwar Sadat's peace treaty with Israel. As a result, he was denounced by Islamic fundamentalists." Read more at timearchive.com.