My thanks to Carole Glickfeld for her thoughtful letter (“World view,” May 13) about my column, (“American Jews are Twice Chosen,” April 29). I write to create a political dialogue on issues left and right, and Ms. Glickfeld is helping to fulfill that goal. We agree I am a chauvinist. We represent poles of a spectrum: I am a chauvinist and she apparently believes all cultures are equally valid and valuable. While I may be faulted, it’s clear we have a lot to be proud of. America builds shelves of ever-more-refined case law on Miranda warnings while in other places a woman who has been raped is sentenced to stoning for adultery in a tribal court where her testimony is inadmissible. If people can’t see that one is better than the other, they are blind.
I find it ironic that she mentions public opinion in Spain as commentary on American leadership. After the horrific bombing attack by al Qaeda in Madrid in 2004 that killed 190 and wounded 1,800, Spanish voters booted out the Aznar government and pulled their troops from Iraq. How is it that people in Spain could choose to do nothing after such an attack? Because they have America to protect them — they are safe in Spain because our “cowboy” president had the courage to lead the world.