A hornet’s nest

SIR – Not only has the Assad regime in Syria violated international law, it has violated human decency (“Hit him hard”, August 31st). Barack Obama has repeatedly decried chemical weapons as a red line that must not be crossed. To do nothing in response would set a shameful and potentially devastating precedent that the most powerful country in the world tacitly accepts the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Disappointingly the leader of the free world has once again allowed his cautious nature to delay and weaken action. An adept leader must balance consensus building with calculated decision-making. Unfortunately, Mr Obama has too often relied on the former at the expense of the latter. As a president who appears genuinely to care about making the world a better place, he would be wise to strike a more even balance.

Steve Barth

Charlotte, North Carolina

SIR – A defeat for Mr Assad’s army would allow the rebels and al-Qaeda to get its hands on Syria’s chemical weapons. America would then have to put boots on the ground to protect the stockpile, and end up fighting the insurgents. Saddam Hussein did not back down when faced with certain defeat. If Mr Assad is willing to die in a hail of bullets, would America again have to inherit responsibility for a country?

Jamie Jones

Ocala, Florida

SIR – “Hit him hard” is sterling advice from people who won’t have to pay for it, to people who will. The solution needs to come from the Arab world.

Martin Straub

Rüti, Switzerland

SIR – It seems The Economist has abandoned its classical liberal roots and instead adopted the high moral tone of the neoconservatives. Self-satisfied with your miscall on the Iraq war and oblivious to the lessons learned, you have become increasingly shrill in demanding an attack on Syria. Such drum beating is the hallmark of empire, not the cool reasoning of Adam Smith. Stephen Mooney

London SIR – I was bowled over by the outburst of moral indignation in your editorial and the lack of rational argument. It’s as if you are saying, “Let’s do the deed boys! Who cares if more chaos is created for the Syrian people and the Middle East!” The West will then have had the therapeutic fix it needs to salve its conscience. Julian Lagnado

Strasbourg

Call her mellow Yellen

SIR – There is an additional reason why The Economist is prudent to support Janet Yellen over Larry Summers to be the next head of the Federal Reserve (“Choosing the chairman”, August 31st). Mr Summers is the prototypical alpha male and, as you noted, he would be “less predictable” and more likely “to unsettle the markets with unscripted comments.” In fact, sober scientific studies show that men with high testosterone levels tend to make more risky financial decisions than women. Conversely, women are likely to make better long-term monetary judgments. Mr Summers himself had to resign as president of Harvard for suggesting that men and women have different attributes, but when it comes to financial decision-making he may have been correct. Malcolm Potts

Berkeley, California

Chernobyl’s rebirth

SIR – The book review of “Four Fields” by Tim Dee concludes that “it is at Chernobyl…that man’s influence on the earth’s surface is at its most poignant. Here radiation has left the land flat and bleak for miles, triggering mutations in flora and fauna and leaving everything ill” (“Fields of dreams”, August 24th). Actually, the exclusion zone around Chernobyl has become a wonderfully diverse habitat for otherwise endangered species. One species that was no longer found in the wild, Przewalski’s horse, has been re-established there. There is much emotional hyperbole around that ignores the factual evidence on what is happening in Chernobyl’s surrounding area. As far as fauna and flora are concerned, the positive effects of the absence of humans seem to outweigh the hazards of radiation. An unmolested wilderness refuge has developed. Professor Stephen Bondy

Division of occupational and environmental health

University of California, Irvine

New York’s bad old days

SIR – You bemoaned the rise in America’s prison population since 1980 (“An unlikely alliance of left and right”, August 17th). During the 1980s New York was plagued by violent muggings, which occurred regularly during daylight hours, even in Times Square. Murders would often happen at subway stations in the afternoon. Motorists were accosted at intersections by “window washers”, at best a motley crew of low-level extortionists, and at worst potential carjackers. The city saw nearly ten murders a day. Porn and prostitution was rampant around Times Square.

Enter Rudy Giuliani as mayor in 1994, a former prosecutor who decided to get tough. He went after petty crime, such as spraying graffiti on subways. And he had the police take the guns off street thugs as a means of going after drug kingpins. The murder rate in New York is a fraction of what it was 30 years ago; the subway system is mostly safe. Maybe we have gone overboard in jailing people for possessing small quantities of pot, and “three-strikes” laws should probably not apply to someone whose third offence is stealing a loaf of bread. But it would be a shame if we went back to the lax law enforcement of the 1970s. Chuck Hoffheiser

The Woodlands, Texas * SIR – The late Michael Dewar had a good suggestion. Give first offenders automatically the maximum sentence, then take them for four weeks to a strict prison. After that, release them on probation. If they ever come before a court again, they have to serve in full the first sentence as well as one for the second offence.

Linde Katritzky

Gainesville, Florida

SIR – As an incarcerated (and loyal) reader of The Economist, I must inform you that images that might instil “violence or hatred among the offender population” are the same on either side of the fence (“Sense and censorship, August 24th). And although it is undisputed that America spends $80 billion a year on prisons, I take issue with your assumption that any government could procure scissors for anything close to the retail price of $2.

Robert Griffiths

Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Centre

New York

City living

* SIR – A city’s revival and survival does not only depend on being economically diverse (Free exchange, August 17th). The human component is essential; neglecting a city’s aesthetic and cultural values leads to its gradual decline. Detroit’s fixation on its old-industrial glory led to its demise. The Gold Rush promoted the California dream, but that dream successfully moved from gold to farming, filmmaking, technology and other pursuits, attracting millions of immigrants. But although economic diversity is propelled by properly motivated profit-seekers, money is fickle. The way people live and experience a city is more permanent. Visit Paris for a day. Anyone with a soul will understand that there’s much more to the city than its economic prowess. Adrian Gonzalez Guerra

Monterrey, Mexico

Paying for an education

SIR – Your assertion that “inner-city schools cannot be fixed by throwing money at them” is wrong (“Chasing the dream”, August 24th). Data show that suburban school systems are often funded at twice the level of urban schools and private schools receive five times as much.

As H.L. Mencken once observed, when somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.

Michael Holzman

Briarcliff Manor, New York

Cyborgs v androids