LETTERS
Mearsheimer's missed point

---

The people who responded in the June/02 issue to John J. Mearsheimer's article "Liberal Talk, Realist Thinking" (February/02) missed a crucial point. Can Mearsheimer, who approvingly states "the United States speaks one way and acts another," possibly not realize that this attitude is in large part responsible for the events of September 11? "They" don't "hate our freedoms," they hate the fact that freedom is for us and not for them, that our wealth is bought at the price of their poverty, that in the name of democracy we support oppression.

This would be completely obvious were it not for the "spin doctors" that mysteriously "appear" to disguise reality from the public. Mearsheimer thinks that "most Americans readily accept these rationalizations," but is he so naive as to think that people from other nations do too? And how did the Magazine rationalize printing this article (which I will politely refrain from calling bad names) so soon after September 11? I was incredulous (nauseous?) when I saw it there.

Linda T. Darling, MAT'79, AM'80, PhD'90
Tucson, Arizona

---