On Syria

America’s hegemony threatens to bring about a replay of Iraq 2003 — it has yet to reconcile itself to the concept of “soft power” (Joseph Nye Jr.) One hopes the global community will be able to persuade Mr. Obama to refrain from commanding an unwarranted military intervention.

M. Jameel Ahmed,

Mysore

It is ironic that a recipient of the coveted Nobel Peace Prize will now be the architect of death and destruction. Sweden must immediately recall the award. Barack Obama must realise that the unnecessary wars America conducted in West Asia only resulted in great misery, with innumerable lives being lost and properties devastated. There were no weapons of mass destruction. It was not very long ago that Mr. Obama said he admired Mahatma Gandhi as being the votary of peace.

Anand Jha,

New Delhi

Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter which permits military action “to protect civilians” is glibly invoked as obligating foreign armed intervention, conveniently disregarding the fact that the question of protecting people will arise only if there is continuing and repeated massacres of civilians and not for a one-off incident like Syria. What we are witnessing is once again the roll-out of America’s neo-imperialistic and hegemonic designs in oil-rich West Asia. Mr. Obama is no different from his predecessors.

A.N. Lakshmanan,

Bangalore