The Economist - USA (2019-10-05)

16 The EconomistOctober 5th 2019

Lettersarewelcomeandshouldbe

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Letters

It’s time to leave

Clearly you have thrown cau-

tion to the wind regarding any

reluctance to hold back on your

ill-concealed bile regarding

Boris Johnson (“The reck-

oning”, September 28th). You

say he is the worst prime min-

ister in living memory, an

opinion so grossly uncharita-

ble that it could only emanate

from rabid, Brussels-infatuat-

ed journalists, wholly given

over to Remain propaganda. A

few lines later, you say he is

“inadequate” to the task and

only in office because of Brexit.

Is this surprising when one

considers how deliberately the

deep-state establishment has

done its best to scupper Brexit

altogether? It would dishonour

the wishes of 17.4m of us

stupid, brainless, moronic,

uneducated, gormless half-

wits, who want our govern-

ment back, who want to con-

trol our own borders, make our

own laws, spend our own

money, and who do not wish to

be ruled by France and Ger-

many and their back-scratch-

ing bureaucrats, manipulating

a hopeless crony capitalism.

You know very well that the

euro is on life support and can

only prosper if fiscal union is

achieved, which implies the

end of the nation state. The

Lisbon treaty demands full

compliance in fiscal and mon-

etary policy, in defence and

social interaction, of which the

most economically damaging

and socially divisive is

uncontrolled immigration.

Is it right-wing to resist

these negative developments?

Is it wrong to want sovereignty

returned? Is it unacceptable to

wish not to be a continental

European? You leave me al-

most speechless at your lack of

patriotism (let me guess, you

have a house in France and

friends in Tuscany). For you

democracy is dead, replaced by

technocracy, the rule of Plato’s

golden souls who know (how

do they?) all the outcomes, the

ideal way forward, the pre-

scriptions for universal happi-

ness, unlike us benighted,

dead-wood, has-beens.

david maples

Petersfield, Hampshire

Askingpeopletovoteina

secondreferendumwouldbe

anincrediblemarkofdisre-

spect.It wouldmeanthat

democracyhasbeenreplaced

witha perniciouskindof

dictatorshipwherepeopleare

stillallowedtospeakup,but

theirvoicesareneverheard.

kenjioshiguru

Yokohama,Japan

Charlemagnehasthecheekto

mention“theeu’s commit-

menttofreetrade”andthe

Doharoundofmultilateral

tradenegotiations(September

14th).Infact,theeuwasthe

principalculpritinwrecking

thisround todefendtheeco-

nomicobscenityofthecom-

monagriculturalpolicy,which

youdescribedas“disgraceful”

atthetime(“Deadlockedin

Doha”,March29th2003).That

articleforetoldthatthefailure

ofDohawouldresultin“trade-

divertingbilateralorregional

tradedeals”.Theeuisnot

committedtofreetrade.It is

committedtomanagedtrade

toprotectthecap.

charlesefford

London

NATO in Afghanistan

Regarding the stalled peace

deal with the Taliban in

Afghanistan (“Talking chop”,

September 14th), the over-

whelming brunt of the fighting

is conducted by the Afghan

National Security Forces who,

because of their limited train-

ing and capability, are taking

huge casualties. The Afghan

government stopped pub-

lishing the data in 2017 but one

reliable estimate suggests

some 20 are killed each day.

This affects morale and recruit-

ment; their natoco-operation

troops have to work hard to

keep them going. Despite the

collective effort, the Afghan

government controls just over

50% of the country, at best.

This demonstrates that,

although a peace settlement is

ultimately the only way to

settle Afghanistan, this is not

the time to tinker with nato

force numbers. We should not

forget that it was the with-

drawal of Russian co-operation

troops in 1992, not the Soviets’

cessationofformalcombat

operationsin1989,thatpre-

sagedthecollapseoftheNaji-

bullahregimeandtheeventual

Talibantakeoverin1996.The

parallelsarenotencouraging.

Inallthis,Britainhasre-

sponsibilitiesdistinctfrom

ourdutyasanatoally.These

aretosupportandsustainthe

legitimateAfghangovernment

anditssecurityforcesandto

protectourpartnersinthat

struggle,especiallyourformer

interpreters.Ourhistoryand

engagementwithAfghanistan

andthesacrificesofthecam-

paigndemandnothingless.

colonel(ret’d)simon

diggins

Defenceattaché,Kabul2008-

Rickmansworth,Hertfordshire

Thepopesoncapitalism

SchumpeterdescribedCatho-

licsocialteachingas“pro-

capitalist”(September7th).

True,thechurchhaslong

rejectedcollectivismand

championedprivateenter-

prise.Butpopeshavealso

cautionedagainstcapitalism,

notleastitsneoliberaliter-

ation.PiusXIIblamed“the

exploitationofprivatecapital”

(aswellas“stateabsolutism”)

forworkingpeople’s“servi-

tude”.PaulVIcriticisedthe

“unbridledliberalism”inher-

entincapitalism.JohnPaulII

condemnedtheincreasingly

“intrusive,eveninvasive,

characterofthelogicofthe

market”.BenedictXVIcalled

for“aneweconomicmodel”.

PopeFrancisstandssquarelyin

thistradition,whichdoesn’tfit

neatlyonthesecularleft-right

ideologicalspectrum.

danbrendel

Oceanside,California

Einstein’s politics

It is interesting that the Albert

Einstein exhibition in Shang-

hai ignores the fact that he

supported some communist

causes in the 1920s and 1930s,

though not all (“Relatively

revealing”, September 21st).

Einstein campaigned, for

example, for the freedom of the

Noulens couple, who had been

arrested in Shanghai in 1931 for

being leading members of the

Communist International’s

liaison office with East and

South-East Asian communist

parties, all of them illegal at the

time. He also supported, after

an about turn, the Moscow

show trials. Yet, in 1931 he had

written in a private letter:

I am not for punishment at all,

but only for measures that

serve society and its protec-

tion. In principle I would not

be opposed to killing individ-

uals who are worthless or

dangerous in that sense. I am

against it only because I do not

trust people, ie, the courts.

Stalin seems to have become

trustworthy to Einstein. His

politics cannot be reduced to

supporting free opinion; he

may even sometimes have

ignored that principle.

freddy litten

Munich

Hello, Columbus

For those who may not be able

to get to Columbus, Indiana, to

check out its surprising Mod-

ernist buildings, I recommend

an offbeat movie called, some-

what unsurprisingly, “Colum-

bus” (“Modernism in the

cornfields”, September 14th). It

features most of the architec-

tural gems referred to in your

article, and it got sparkling

reviews. As Rotten Tomatoes

says, “‘Columbus’...balances

the clean lines of architecture

against the messiness of love.”

nigel brachi

Edmonton, Canada

A legendary oil man

T. Boone Pickens didn’t just

show inefficient firms who was

boss (Buttonwood, September

21st). When Drake, a hip-hop

star, posted a humble brag on

Twitter that making “the first

million is the hardest”, Pickens

shot back: “the first billion is a

helluva lot harder.”

yacov arnopolin

London