Dear Bruce:

First, to the issue. I am all in favor of reducing or eliminating efforts to start up nuclear arms production by any nation. But I would offer that it requires a keen intelligence into how people work and what they respond to. Anyone who has traveled much would know that a Persian will not back down to bullying, but he will do anything for a friend.

Anyone with any experience in a kasbah would understand that an Arab will not stand for -- or readily forget -- an affront to his dignity; but treated with the right manners, he can be brought to discuss anything. This is not unusual knowledge; it is pretty much human nature.

It also requires a keen sense of what is actually happening, not a wholesale indulgence in panic mongering over the furthest-out worst-case possibilities.

Second, as to your puerile inversion of my sentence, I respectfully request that you not do that anymore. Except at recess.

A