about the Taliban

At the end of her extremely complex analysis of the challenges facing the Pakistan/United States alliance, Trudy Rubin ("U.S., Pakistan must fight militants together," Sunday) offers an unconvincing glimmer of hope. If we don't trust each other; if the war on terror is largely a contemporary abstraction for Americans, but a daily struggle against suicide attacks in Peshawar; and if there is neither a common nor coherent definition of the problem, how can we hope to succeed?

For example, the Taliban connotes something sinister and uniform to most Americans, but Rubin describes numerous versions. Pakistan classifies them by the degree of internal threat they pose. We postulate a faction of the Taliban favored by Pakistan's government in case they should return to power in Afghanistan. Then there is the Taliban allied with al-Qaeda that has to be extirpated, not to be confused with the one with merely regional ambitions that might be bribed.

Rubin describes as "well-educated" the many Pakistanis who believe the chaos in their country is part of an American plot to "steal their nukes." In light of that definition of the "problem," we must continue making decisions in the dark.

James Miles

Collingdale

jxxphilly@gmail.com

Reform must

cut the red tape

Re: "Insurance rules put a strain on doctors" (Sunday):

Given this high degree of administrative complexity, it comes as no surprise that the United States is among the countries that have the highest health expenditures in the world.

Reform must include measures to simplify the health-care system, particularly the health-insurance system. Taxpayer money is provided to improve overall health outcomes. It is not provided so that time can be wasted on navigating the tangled bureaucracy of the system.

Caroline Teh

Philadelphia

'Controlled kills'

the humane solution

Annette John-Hall's column on deer kills in Valley Forge and Lower Merion (Friday) appeared the morning after I collided with a deer driving home. The experience convinced me of the need for "controlled kills," no matter how misnamed. This opinion is not because the accident tore up my front end, which it did. It's because I sat helplessly watching the animal in the road suffering with crushed hindquarters until the police arrived to put it out of its misery.

Putting repellent in the yard does little good when a deer is running at full speed into the road. Birth control may be a long-term solution, but it won't stop the torture suffered by hundreds of innocent animals in traffic accidents or end their starvation from overpopulation. By comparison, a quick shot from an experienced marksman is a far more humane solution.

Wayne Klitsch

East Norriton

Law requires

trials in New York

Columnists, politicians, and talk-show hosts are objecting stridently to Attorney General Eric H. Holder's decision to hold the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City (Sunday). The Constitution actually requires that Holder schedule the trial in New York unless Congress requires otherwise:

Article III, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the U.S. Constitution states: "The trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment; shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed ..."

If the attorney general is to act within the requirements of the Constitution and his oath of office, he has no choice. The Constitution says try them in New York by jury, in a regularly constituted court.

Should not the Senate require, and should not every newspaper and media outlet require, that persons speaking on these matters read the Constitution and pass an eighth-grade civics test on the contents of the document?

H. Dabbs Woodfin

Glen Mills

Separate

church and state

Father James McCabe is entitled to his opinion (Letters, Saturday), as any private citizen is, but when the Conference of Catholic Bishops or the Mormon Church or any other religion has paid lobbyists, it should lose its tax-exempt status. Separation of church and state should mean just that. The government will stay out of your churches. Your churches should stay out of government, or lose your tax status.

Lorna Bearn

Warminster