To the editor:

The issue of the United Nations and United States response to the threat of Iraqi weapons programs is hard to ignore. Turn anywhere, you see it, everywhere, the debate rages. I thought Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, published in 1721, would surely provide refuge. No such luck. Written nearly 300 years ago, the book is viewed as a signature of the Enlightenment. Usbek and Rhedi, two Persian Princes, on an extended visit to Europe, principally Paris, write letters home, and to each other concerning their observations.

Dated 1717, Rhedi, who is in Venice, writes to Usbek, then in Paris:

“You know that, since the invention of gunpowder, no fortress is impregnable; that is to say, Usbek, that there is no longer upon earth an asylum against injustice and violence. I am always in terror lest some secret or other should be at length discovered that will not only kill men, but destroy entire tribes and nations.”

Usbek promptly responds to his friend’s speculation:

“You fear, say you, the invention of some method of destruction more cruel than any in present use. No; were such a fatal invention to be devised, it would soon be prohibited by the law of nations and crushed out of existence by unanimous consent. To make conquests by such means is not in harmony with the interests of princes: They seek subjects, not lands.”

No need to change any of the words.

Bill Skepnek,

Lawrence