Post by Moses on Jul 19, 2005 11:20:01 GMT -5
July 17, 2005
Nonstrategy on Iraq (2 Letters)
To the Editor:
Bob Herbert is right about President Bush's stay-the-course nonstrategy to win the war in Iraq ("It Just Gets Worse," column, July 11).
Not since Herbert Hoover was in the White House has a president so stubbornly refused to alter course, listen to those counseling a change of tactics or accept mounting evidence that his policy was failing.
"I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency" - Vice President Dick Cheney's characterization of the horrific and continuing violence in Iraq - will eventually have the same hollow ring for many of us as "prosperity is just around the corner" had for our parents. Mr. Bush, who we are told is concerned about his "legacy," should know that history has not been kind to Hoover.
Judith H. Christie
Wynnewood, Pa., July 12, 2005
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To the Editor:
Bob Herbert reminds us that the only thing more shameful than using war to force political change in fourth-rate opponents like Iraq is to lie about why it was necessary to hurry up and do it in the first place.
But perhaps worst of all is that the president has shamefully traded on the positive image and real suffering of the average soldier in combat to sustain that failed policy. Wrapping an ill-conceived and now failed preventive invasion in the flag and deliberately confusing it with the necessity of sustaining our combat troops is a horrible misuse of his office and of our children and loved ones, not to mention the staggering financial burden it places on future generations.
John Greeley
Oceanside, N.Y., July 11, 2005
The writer, a Vietnam veteran, is a former Marine Reserve captain.
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