Sir, - James Adler of Cambridge Mass. has a gift for misapprehension, distortion and illogic which he attempts to hide by a glib quote from Thucydides.
He misapprehends the brutal reality of the continuous threats of annihilation that Iran directs against Israel and immediately upon achieving nuclear weapon capability would be converted into an attempt at Israel's complete destruction.
Adler distorts when he describes a letter as being 'decisive' simply because he approves of it, and when he states that "the only solution is diplomacy." He distorts most grossly when he describes the twenty year war in Vietnam as "an occasional miscalculation." It resulted in more than 58,000 American casualties, South Vietnamese 200,000, and North Vietman suffered over one million casualties. He further distorts by failing to mention the American debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Adler's illogic manifests itself when he urges diplomacy as the solution. Has he drawn that conclusion by the 'success' of the diplomatic efforts to halt the slaughter of 30,000 civilians in Syria? By the success of sanctions in slowing Iran's drive toward weapon capability? Does Adler have any examples where a tyrannical regime was persuaded by diplomacy? N.Korea? Pakistan? His illogic is further compounded by suggestion that Israel (the threatened party) is invited to accept Arab peace initiatives and cede territory without even a suggestion that Iran give up any of its nefarious objectives.
Israel deserves better advice!
ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva
