West must confront Isis
Why must the west risk its soldiers’ lives to defeat Isis (17 July)? The conventional answer is that Isis, if unchecked, will become more of a threat in the west. Those who worry that the horrors of Islamic State (Isis) will leach out of the Middle East as foreign fighters return home should ask themselves: is this less or more likely to occur when Isis is defeated – thanks to western military aid – and its forces scattered? The threat of terrorism in the west from an Isis engaged in a prolonged intra-Arab war, and then either totally defeated or able to win enough territory to establish itself as a state, would still be palpable, but at least vengeance would not be added to the mix of motivations behind it.
What is occurring in the Middle East is a sectarian struggle, egged on by political actors, very similar to the wars that wracked Europe in Christianity’s 16th century. In fact, the barbarities perpetrated in cities in Syria and Iraq are child’s play compared with those of the western wars of religion, as cities in Europe were taken and re-taken by the Catholics and Protestants.
The reaction of the west to the contemporary Islamic upheaval should not be an aggressive one. Our proper role in the Syria-Iraq cataclysm is to abate its humanitarian crisis. It will be a difficult and largely thankless job, much less exciting for the media than bombing and shelling, and subject to continuous setbacks and pitfalls, but it is the right thing to do. In the long run, it also is the best thing to do strategically.
Samuel Reifler
Rhinebeck, New York, US
The Greek experience
The Greek experience confirms the benefits Germany continues to reap from the EU (24 July). It appears widely accepted the Greek debt is ridiculous – the IMF look to be just getting in early. Germany objects to debt relief hoping in the meantime to sidestep the brunt of the write-offs, expecting that the burden can be shared across the EU.
However, the EU overwhelmingly works in Germany’s economic favour, by reducing the strength of its currency, supplying cheap labour and accessing captive markets. In its satellite position, Britain will probably avoid sharing Greek pain, but France will probably not.
But how long can Germany keep its euro show on the road? Is convergence a real policy, or just a smokescreen in the long grass?
A Clark
Morpeth, UK
• I read your list of the “key points” involved in the Greek bailout and was curious about one point: “Alexis Tsipras pledged to implement radical reforms to ensure that the Greek oligarchy makes a fair contribution” (17 July). Does this include tracking down cash that has made its way to various tax havens (eg Luxembourg)? I hope so.
But surely Tsipras can’t do this alone and will need help from Brussels? Maybe you can investigate what steps are being taken and what specific help he will receive for this task. Or maybe, as has been so often the case in the past, European governments are simply not interested in reining in tax and regulation havens.
It’s not really a “bailout”, but rather a credit extension. It is deceptive not to call this particular spade by its name.
Alan Mitcham
Cologne, Germany
• In the lexicon of Greek dances, alongside sirtaki should be added an eponymous tsiprasi. It is danced slyly, in circles around Grexit, round and round and round.
Jack Aslanian
Oakland, California, US
Power and responsibility
Technological advances in the last 50 years have permitted the human population to double, and resource consumption to increase even more quickly. Human actions now determine the future of our species and that of the natural world. The Anthropocene era has finally arrived.
With power comes responsibility. Humanity’s collective ability to alter the world’s climate, by the emission of greenhouse gases, gives us the responsibility to chart a future that favours the survival of our species, or one that risks not doing so.
There are also crucial choices. For example, should we risk excising the fertile Liverpool Plains from Australia’s food bowl in order to build mega-coalmines? (Fossil fuel industry must ‘implode’, 17 July).
We have technological progress. Now we need decision-making processes that give sufficient weight to options that lessen the risk of future catastrophe. If the risks of a development are unclear, the best course may well be to shelve such development until we have the requisite knowledge properly to assess the risks.
David Teather
Canberra, Australia
• In your article Fossil fuel industry must implode, both climate and economic experts argue persuasively for a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy. Failure to do so would “screw up the planet”.
It was baffling to read, a few pages later, your summary of the UK budget’s winners and losers that completely ignored policies introduced by the chancellor, George Osborne, which will send us in the wrong direction by reinforcing the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels.
Electricity from renewable sources will no longer be exempt from the climate change levy, a tax on energy use paid by businesses, while there will be an expansion of tax relief for oil and gas exploration.
Vehicle excise duty, from 2017, will increase for low emission cars and decrease for those with the highest emissions.
Money raised from vehicle excise duty will go into a road-building fund, which will increase car use and carbon emissions, rather than into public transport or cycling.
Fuel duty will remain frozen, breaking a previous government pledge that it would rise if oil prices remained below $75 a barrel.
A newspaper that does take climate change seriously surely should have referred to some of these policies in its budget losers list.
Gordon James
Whitland, UK
Bibliotherapy is a must
Oliver Burkeman’s column (17 July) discusses the possible inefficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy which is, very briefly, the attempt by trained advisers to encourage others under stress to alleviate or manage their condition. No mention is given of the use of bibliotherapy as an adjunct to CBT, which is the reading of novels, including graphic novels, and poetry, to help people cope.
Such recent books as The Novel Cure encourage this approach to self-enlightenment, and writers as diverse as Anthony Trollope and Walt Whitman, from my own personal experience, can offer relief and guidance to help you manoeuvre the world around you.
Richard Orlando
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Fickle fashion hurts women
I love my Guardian Weekly, but read with mounting displeasure about “the pleasure and pain of shoes” (3 July). During physical education teacher training in the UK during my 20s, I became aware that my favourite high heels were distorting my toes and my lower leg muscles, and I got rid of such footwear for life.
Now, at 85 years, I am grateful to have unusually supple and well-shaped feet, a great help after five hip replacement operations, the first 35 years ago due to a birth defect. It appals me to see so many young women addicted to the vagaries of fickle fashion, and the attitudes of designers in this day and age.
Thelma Bryan
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Briefly
• Is Donald Trump a trumpet for the American people (17 July)? A Bronx cheer, more like.
R M Fransson
Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
• Suzanne Moore (24 July) is spot on: “the value of the social has plummeted”. I ran jazz festivals in West Lulworth with the finest New Orleans jazz musicians in England: villagers contributed accommodation and food freely. When Margaret Thatcher (“There’s no such thing as society”) made money God, she ruined the spirit and generosity of the community and the ethos of the jazz fraternity.
Edward Black
Sydney, Australia
• Israel’s own nuclear deterrent ensures that Iran could never strike first with a hypothetical nuclear weapon (17 July). And with its new president, Iran has stopped threatening its destruction. So what’s Binyamin Netanyahu’s problem now?
Ren Kempthorne
Nelson, New Zealand
Email letters for publication to weekly.letters@theguardian.com including a full postal address and a reference to the article. Submissions may be edited for publication
