A Conflict Revisited
In "Israel's Triumph" [June 11], Fouad Ajami claims that Israel held back from entering Arab capitals because it had its hands full with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This explanation denies Israel the credit it deserves for limiting its military response to the creation of defensible borders, whose actual boundaries have been negotiable in exchange for peace and security.
ROWAN DORDICK
Woodstock, N.Y.
As an American who was in Israel before, during, and after the Six-Day War, I was surprised to read such a balanced account of the war. Ajami's conclusion that "At the heart of the war lay the willful Arab refusal to accept Israel's legitimacy and statehood" is still the real basis of the ongoing conflict.
MARVIN L. ENGEL
Walnut Creek, Calif.
As I read "Israel's Triumph," I was reminded of when I was an instructor at the Office of Civil Defense (now FEMA) Staff College in Battle Creek, Mich., in 1967, where civil defense preparedness was taught to foreign nationals. While we were dining one evening at Schuler's Restaurant in nearby Marshall, Mich., my wife invited two foreign students sitting alone at separate tables to join us. During our conversation, we learned that one guest was a general who ran Jordan's Air Force; the other, an Israeli Army officer. The two were most amiable, and we had a very friendly dinner. After the two departed, I said to my wife that she had invited two potential foes to eat with us. That was a timely observation. In less than a month, the Six-Day War began.
WILLIAM H. SMITH
Palm Desert, Calif.
Soldiers of Medicine
Bernadine Healy gets it right in "Serving Military Medicine" [June 11]: The nation does need the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Not only does Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences educate doctors and nurses to care for those in harm's way and produce the leaders in military and public-health medicine; we also are at the front lines in research. Specifically, in the area of military medicine applied research, our faculty and students are engaged in research in such areas as more effective ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat traumatic brain injury; to better prepare troops and their families for deployment-related issues (including separation, stress, the effects on children, and reintegration into the family upon the return home); to develop new treatments and technologies to help wounded service men and women return to full, productive lives; to prevent, recognize, and treat infectious diseases around the world; and to prepare our health professionals to treat the victims of natural or man-made disasters here at home and globally. Students attending USU can focus on their education without the worry of incurring debt. Medical students enter the university as commissioned officers, pay no tuition or fees, and receive the full salary and benefits of a uniformed officer throughout their four years in exchange for a seven-year active-duty service commitment. For more information, visit the USU website (www.usuhs.edu).
CHARLES L. RICE, M.D.
President Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Bethesda, Md.
Retirement Realities
When I read the cover story "10 Bargain Retirement Spots" [June 11], I crossed my fingers that none in Idaho would be listed. Then when I opened it up, there was Sandpoint ["Sandpoint, Idaho"]. Sandpoint is everything you say and more. But a lovely thing about almost all of Idaho is the lack of congestion and crime. I was hoping we could remain a secret.
IRENE BAIN
Potlatch, Idaho
C'mon, why did you list "Melbourne Beach, Florida," where the median home value is $425,500 and the cost of living is 32.2 percent above the U.S. average, and "Kennebunk, Maine," where the cost of living is 17.7 percent above the U.S. average, among "10 Bargain Retirement Spots"? I'm sure you could have found other towns equally appealing that would have truly served readers "ready to ponder an affordable retirement."
BELLA ROMAIN
Tucson, Ariz.
As a resident of an area that the housing boom has left behind (median home prices in my area in the first quarter of 2007 are around $98,100), I read your Annual Guide to "10 Bargain Retirement Spots" with great interest and disappointment. Of the 10 bargain areas, eight had a median home price of $150,000 or more, which would make homeownership a challenge for many in our area. Information about rental availability and costs in each of these areas would have been helpful. "Do Your Research Before Buying" [June 11] pointed out other factors that needed to be taken into consideration. Hmmm...the best place for me to retire may be...right here.
ALANA MAUTONE
Johnson City, N.Y.
Of Tax Hikes and Job Training
In his observant editorial on the uneasy middle class, Mortimer B. Zuckerman recognizes the economic uncertainties facing the nation's "bottom" 90 percent and notes that things have worsened since Ronald Reagan's administration ["Uneasy in the Middle," June 11]. Zuckerman skates to the edge but does not leap. The obvious conclusion is to reinstate the 70 percent tax rate that Reagan slashed along with the universal notion that paying taxes is a patriotic duty.
JOSEPH CHIANESE
Oakland, Calif.
Zuckerman is right that our nation needs to "equip Americans with the skills to make them mobile and give them greater economic security." Helping Americans learn better job skills will increase salaries, mobility, and prosperity. Job training is the sleeper issue of the 2008 presidential campaign. While candidates from both parties are talking about middle-class anxiety and inequality, neither party is addressing job skills. The party that begins to focus on job training and provides real solutions will reap a great political reward.
DAVID GRAY
New America Foundation
Washington, D.C.
This story appears in the July 2, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.