A'jad in the Big Apple

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What Would Jesus Censor?
Isn't this the same mentality that Westerners fault — indeed, ridicule — in Muslims who are offended by references to Muhammad? [Sept.24] The old saying "What's good for the goose is good for the gander" comes to mind.
Jeanette F. Huber, KINSALE, IRELAND

Reading Earth's Danger Signs
"How fearsome must the headlines be about tomorrow before people change their ways today?" Gibbs asked [Sept.24]. Psychologically speaking, people need to worry more about the present to change. Our brains are hardwired to respond to immediate dangers, not ones that are years or decades away. And a term like global warming is too benign, especially for those like me who live in a cold climate and might welcome an increase of a few degrees. Perhaps we should use the term global boiling, like the proverbial experiment in which a frog stays in a gradually warming pot of water and eventually dies. Maybe we all need to visualize the destruction to make us feel a sense of immediate danger.
H. Steven Moffic, M.D., professor of psychiatry, Medical College of Wisconsin, MILWAUKEE

Get your heads out of the sand! we won't have to worry about global warming 50 years from now or, for that matter, five years from now if we keep ignoring the fact that nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists will make everything extinct.
Ramona Rettzo, TRENTON, N.J., U.S.

Sometime in the 22nd century (if we get there as a species), schoolchildren in a new dark age will read about all the sirens going off at the same time — "ice melting, species vanishing and cities choking the people who live in them" — and no one in power ever giving these life-or-death matters the full, single-minded attention they so desperately deserved.
Carlos A. Leo, HOLLYWOOD, FLA., U.S.

Rugby as Social Scrum
Re Vivienne Walt's story on the Springboks' chances in the 2007 Rugby World Cup [Sept. 24]: human nature is resistant to change. You cannot force change, it just has to happen. The current generation of Springboks are guys who were in high school during the political upheaval in South Africa. Their black peers don't want to play rugby simply because they have no interest in it, just as white South Africans aren't much interested in playing football. You never hear any outcry about football needing transformation, yet it's South Africa's biggest and most corrupt sport. Why turn sports into a political issue? If there is a black player who is good enough, such as Bryan Habana, he will play for the Springboks.
Alvin Horne, PRETORIA

It is difficult to understand why your reporter Daniel Williams should single out the Springboks for being "brutal" [Sept. 17]. After all, both the South Africans and the New Zealanders were originally taught this game by Scottish Presbyterians. The dour Scots obviously never fathomed the English humor in the ridiculous 16-man scrum. It was all meant as a joke, to keep robust adolescent schoolboys occupied during winter — when they could not play cricket.
Deon Thom, GEORGE, SOUTH AFRICA

Let's Be Reasonable
Kudos to Michael Kinsley for highlighting the relevance of leaders' religious beliefs [Sept. 17]. Literal dogmatic beliefs of any kind can lead to behavior ranging from the benignly bizarre to the frighteningly dangerous. When people seek truth based on faith rather than evidence, their decisions are connected to reality only coincidentally and are often divorced from it. The risks that we all face when powerful people act on untested beliefs should be obvious. I can only hope that one day the majority will embrace candidates for whom reason, rather than God, is their adviser.
Brendan Cameron, VANCOUVER, CANADA

The Progress Report
A recent British Petroleum report concluded that the world's oil reserves will last only 40 more years [Sept. 17]. Anyone who advocates leaving Iraq is a lunatic.
John Bengel, ORLANDO, FLA., U.S.

President George W. Bush rightfully invoked the fiasco that ensued after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam. If we leave Iraq within the next year, there will be a civil war. If we leave Iraq in four years, there will be a civil war. The difference will be in the number of U.S. troops who will die delaying the inevitable. Nothing will change the animosity that exists among the ethnic groups in Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not achieve an outcome that is worth American lives. We need to face reality and extricate ourselves from Iraq. Most important, we need to turn our attention to al-Qaeda and fight terrorism, our true enemy.
Joseph A. Rihn Jr., LITITZ, PA., U.S.

It now seems established that the Iraq adventure — including the surge — has been a disaster for the U.S. Nothing tangible has been gained by either the Americans or the Iraqi people except getting rid of the tyrant Saddam Hussein. The endeavor of forcing democracy on the faction-torn Iraqi society does not seem likely to succeed. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a tactical mistake and that the loss of American lives and resources has been in vain. It would be wise for the U.S. to cut its losses instead of sit on false pride and sink deeper into the quagmire.
Ajit P. Singh, LUDHIANA, INDIA