BMJ  2003;327:E214 (4 October), doi:10.1136/bmjusa.03040006 (published 6 May 2003)

BMJ USA: Letter

RAPID RESPONSES FROM BMJ.COM

From BMJ USA 2003;April:219

Editor — Physicians trust that all articles in reputable journals offer reliable statistics, verifiable conclusions, and stringent peer review. My esteem for the BMJ, and more recently, BMJ USA, ends with the publication of "Empty arms: the effect of the arms trade on mothers and children" by David P Southall and Bernadette A M O'Hare [BMJ USA, February 2003, p 103]. We have been adequately taunted that "these decisions should be made by European sophisticates, not Texas adolescents." If BMJ USA is to be simply another liberal tabloid, please remove me from your mailing list.

I am sure that deaths of children do inversely correlate with a country's exports of technologically sophisticated products such as arms .... and computers and televisions and vaccines. I am suspicious that America has used creative financial ploys to sell all such wares to other countries. Lawrence Korb ("Commentary: Arms sales, health, and national security: a call for US leadership" [BMJ USA, February 2003, p 108]) need not insist that greedy government in collusion with evil industry comprises the only plausible explanation.

You have now published a "study" with statistics forced and fortuitous, findings contrived and controversial, and conclusions tortured and tortuous. Therefore, I must now waste time pondering whether, for each author, the editor is so taken with the nobility of the author's cause or the passion of his beliefs that peer review can be sacrificed.

Hoxie, Kansas jrandn{at}ruraltel.net

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