Letters

Peace Is Hell

"Young soldiers will continue to die in Iraq until the U.S. realizes it hasn't cornered the market on pride and love of country." BILL STRUBBE Oakland, Calif.

Your report "Life Under Fire," about the troops in Iraq, bore sad testimony to the failed postwar campaign [IRAQ: BATTLING THE CHAOS, July 14]. While Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spars with journalists over the precise meaning of guerrilla war, Americans are suffering casualties on a daily basis, and their attempts to help the Iraqi people rebuild a country sputter and stall in the face of a security nightmare. No one in the U.S. government or military can take pride in the postwar situation. Instead of planning to protect Iraqis' most precious resources, we became helpless witnesses to the chaotic looting and sabotage of an entire country. HARRY TUBMAN Pleasant Valley, Conn.

I am sick of calls for the coalition forces to leave Iraq. The violence being perpetrated there is committed by gangs, some motivated by politics, others by criminal instincts; some are supporters of Saddam Hussein, others his most ardent opponents. Imagine if the coalition forces did withdraw! The slaughter that would follow would be devastating. The coalition forces are performing a function vitally needed by the Iraqi people and welcomed by most of them. The troops are acting under incredibly difficult circumstances. They are all that stands between Iraq and total chaos. TONY SOLMS Tzaneen, South Africa

Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, is an extraordinary man, and he is doing everything he can to help Iraq, which is badly in need of a new order. In guerrilla warfare, the most important strategy is to win the people's hearts. We need to advertise why we are in Iraq, get the Iraqi people on our side, let them help us eliminate the bad influences. Air daily TV and radio announcements on Iraq's current situation and what the U.S. is doing to change it. Make clear to the Iraqis the U.S.'s goals and objectives. The more the Iraqi people see and hear about what we are doing for them, the more they will be convinced of our purpose. ROBERT MA San Diego

You quoted Bremer as asking, "What's the alternative [to the U.S.'s rebuilding efforts]? Do you really think Iraq would be better off if we left?" My answer to that is yes. When the war started, I thought it was justified. I felt I should support my President in his decision, even though I have family members and friends in the military. Now the war is "over," yet U.S. soldiers are still being killed. How many more U.S. service members have to be killed before the troops can be pulled out for good? JUDY FALLON Shrewsbury, Mass.

Peace is not hell, contrary to your cover headline. There will never be peace so long as violence is used to attain it. President Bush and the military are not after peace; they are after power and control. Peace can be obtained only by nonviolence, understanding and cooperation. Many members of the coalition forces are dying, but it is not peace that is killing them; it is violence and the Bush Administration's goals. NICK ALVA Cotati, Calif.

The U.S. is like an adolescent male who has just found out that his girlfriend is pregnant. We thought the invasion of Iraq was going to be fun and fast. Now, to our astonishment, we learn that misbehavior has consequences. We should never have gone into Iraq. But we have to finish what we started, even if it is messy and inconvenient. HERBERT K. LEA Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

How many more Americans will die in Iraq before we cave in and exit the country in shame? Let's send in enough troops with the right expertise to get the job finished. BRUCE HANKINS Batesville, Ark.

Spoils of War

I was thoroughly disgusted to read that American soldiers had looted and vandalized the airport in Baghdad [IRAQ: BATTLING THE CHAOS, July 14]. Such acts show a gross lack of leadership on the part of the officers. During my 31 years in the U.S. Navy, including two tours commanding naval facilities in foreign countries, I never would have tolerated such conduct. I am proud of my country and want to show its best qualities. As for the comment by a U.S. military official that "soldiers do this stuff all the time, everywhere. It's warfare"--that is a total cop-out. How can we possibly aspire to be the leader of the world if we can't even organize and properly lead our military personnel? JON C. MCKENZIE CAPTAIN, U.S.N. (RET.) Fairfax, Va.

Intervening Interests

Michael Elliott stated that the Bush Administration needs to clearly explain why it wants to intervene in places like Liberia that do not appear to pose a direct threat to the U.S. [GLOBAL AGENDA, July 14]. He noted that "dangers await any Administration that strays from the national interest as the lodestar of its policy." I disagree and support U.S. intervention in troubled countries for humanitarian purposes. Bush should definitely send troops to Liberia, regardless of whether doing so is a matter of national interest for the U.S. On many occasions, the U.S. has been way too slow in taking action, most notably during the beginning of World War II and in Rwanda. MICHAEL SWIECA New York City

I would be 100 times more willing to back a "social work" kind of military intervention than to support one that is a "just in case they have weapons of mass destruction and by the way let's get their oil" kind. We Americans should value the lives of our foreign brothers and sisters as much as we value our own. It is easy to see that we started the war with Iraq at a time when there was no ongoing civil war, no uprising, no massacres. The situation was quite different in Bosnia and Kosovo; our troops ended years of bloodshed and prevented many more people from being killed, even though the conflict was not a direct threat to American interests. LAURA CHIU Palo Alto, Calif.

Longing for Those Lazy Days

Nancy Gibbs' musings on summer vacations, "Free the Children," hit the nail on the head [ESSAY, July 14]. Part of a well-rounded education is a summer of bare feet and lemonade stands, of sandlot baseball games and hide-and-seek until dark. Since when did a little free time hurt anyone? Boredom is a gift that can lead to vast creativity. Except for retirement, when will we ever get the opportunity to learn so much from nobody but ourselves? CHERYL BALDWIN Newark, Calif.

It might be nice to free our children of summer schedules and allow them to play hooky from their overplanned lives, but popular culture is too toxic to allow large, unsupervised doses of free time. Television, movies, pop music and the Internet put children at risk of distorted views of sex, violence and body image. Better to keep them busy with sports, camps and other scheduled activities. BOB KEEFE St. Louis, Mo.

Right-Wing Rhetoric

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter's acerbic tirades are nothing new [10 QUESTIONS, July 14]. Right-wing ideologues have always wrapped themselves in the flag, labeling those who disagree with them as traitorous and unpatriotic. This is fascism, not patriotism. Coulter says "the Democratic Party has got to go away." Maybe she didn't notice, but the Democrats have won the popular vote in the past three presidential elections. With so many "traitors" among us, how does this country endure? JOHN LONG Pasadena, Calif.

We must all remind Coulter that she does not enjoy a monopoly on the truth. Our nation's diversity allows us to have a host of viewpoints, all of which take us toward democratic solutions to problems. It is against the spirit of our country and patriotically shameful to hate or ridicule another American for merely holding an opposing opinion. JAY MELIND Wilmington, N.C.

Total Recall: The Sequel?

The campaign to recall Democratic California Governor Gray Davis may be mischief making by the Republican right wing [NATION, July 14], but I'm guessing that its popularity is due to independent voters like myself. We see the state's budget woes as caused by the tech-bubble collapse and some shady dealings in the power industry, as you reported, but we also deplore the Governor's continued fiscal mismanagement. I'm tempted to vote to recall him, but I probably won't. Sadly, when it comes to a choice between him and Terminator film star Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, Davis is the lesser of two evils. MARK KRIKAVA Watsonville, Calif.

Californians have a short attention span. Show me one Governor in the country whose state is not suffering from severe budget problems. To the detriment of the nation, billions of federal dollars that might have been used to help the states are subsidizing the rich and funding a war that should never have happened. We have lost the ideals of the New Deal and the Great Society, which were put in place to help all Americans, and we have lost the respect and admiration of the world. Schwarzenegger wouldn't save California; he would terminate it. SABINO RODRIGUEZ Daytona Beach Shores, Fla.

Britney All Grown Up

When I saw the ghastly fashion photo of Britney Spears in her bosom-baring outfit [PEOPLE, July 14], you could have knocked me over with a water balloon. From the very first moment of her success, I said, "I hope fame doesn't ruin this beautiful young girl." That she has let the world dictate how she looks, how she acts and what she wears is a crime. DOLORES NISSIM Wildomar, Calif.