My letter to the public editor:

Dear Margaret Sullivan,

A correction to the article “Britain’s Rejection of Syrian Response Reflects Fear of Rushing to Act” states:

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the NATO campaign to unseat Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya. It did in fact have the backing of the United Nations Security Council.

This is false. NATO did not “have the backing of the United States Security Council” “to unseat Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya”. The U.N. emphatically did not authorize the use of force to implement a policy of regime change, which operations exceeded the Security Council’s mandate to create a no-fly zone to protect civilians, in violation of the U.N. Charter, which explicitly prohibits “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.

Again, the Times’ assertion here that the U.N. authorized regime change is false. I trust the New York Times will correct this “correction” so as to clarify that for its readers.

Sincerely,

Jeremy R. Hammond