Please fade away

With regard to “Ehud Barak to ‘Post’: Not seeking Foreign Ministry or running for PM” (June 19), what are we supposed to do? Take to the streets, the airwaves and the media to beg Barak to make a political comeback? I think not. Rather, we can all heave a sigh of relief.

You seem recently to be exhibiting a fascination with the rantings of members of a wannabe military junta who believe they can run the country better than democratically elected politicians. There are many examples of recent history that say they can’t – but in Barak’s case, those examples cry out to the heavens.

While his personal bravery cannot be denied, he was an abject failure as a politician. He was the shortest-serving prime minister in the nation’s history before he had to throw in the towel, leaving Ariel Sharon to clean up the mess. This included an undignified and inadvisable retreat from southern Lebanon, leading to the Second Lebanon War of 2006, not to mention his ill-advised and failed attempt to sup with the devil Arafat, leading to the second intifada, which left hundreds of dead and thousands of injured Israelis.

It is time for Barak and all the other ex-generals to do what old soldiers are supposed to do: fade away. And it is time for The Jerusalem Post to stop, as they say in my old country, flogging a dead horse.

LARRY REEFE Netanya

I applaud former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak for demurely declining to run for any government position.

We do not need retired generals such as Barak and Moshe Ya’alon to run for political office after they do a poor job while serving as chief of staff or defense minister. They allowed four wars to be fought in a single decade, three of them with Hamas and one with Hezbollah. Instead of obliterating them, they gave our enemies the opportunity to regroup and strengthen themselves militarily, in the process wasting the precious blood of our young people in uniform.

These former generals now believe they are the answer to bringing peace to our people and our land, a land constantly buffeted on all sides by those who want our demise. I say to these retired generals: You have served your country, now please retire gracefully. Go and write your memoirs. Go and give speeches and lectures. But I beg you: Stay out of our government – running a country is not the same as running an army.

AVRAHAM SCHONBRUNN Petah Tikva