Letters to the Editor

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The New York Sun

‘The Iraq Movie Flop’

Kevin Hassett’s column in Wednesday’s Sun about the flop of the Robert Redford “Lions and Lambs” film misses the real story [Oped, “The Iraq Movie Flop,” November 21, 2007].

Movie-goers are not tired of “Iraq war” movies. How could they be? Hollywood hasn’t produced any that are worth seeing. What we are tired of is anti-American movies where American soldiers, agencies, and our government are portrayed as villains.

EDWARD NASH
New York, N.Y.

‘ Clue for the Court?’

You raise a correct and thoughtful point about the intent behind the Second Amendment [Editorial, “Clue for the Court?” November 26, 2007].

Indeed, the invocation of bearing arms “for the common defence” in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 is echoed in the debates in the First Congress over the Second Amendment.

The House of Representatives approved this text on August 24, 1789: “A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the People, being the best security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person.”

The reference to security is obviously about “common defence,” and the exemption for those “religiously scrupulous” allowed the pious to opt out of military service (as is true today).

Both are about military, not private or personal self-defense, concerns.

ROBERT SPITZER
Distinguished Service Professor Political Science
SUNY Cortland
Cortland, N.Y.


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