Readers React: Answering the question: War, what is it good for?

To the editor: Gregory Daddis speaks for many of us. There has to be a peaceful way out of this morass before we become as intransigent as the Israelis and Palestinians. It might already be too late. (“Why war? It’s a question Americans should be asking,” Op-Ed, Oct. 4)

While we point at the brutality carried out by Islamic State, both the United States and its allies kill innocents with their bombs. Islamic State will have to work hard to catch up to our body count.

The American people soundly elected President Obama because he said he would end the war in Iraq. When he leaves office, there will be no one left with the moral sensibility that I believe he still has in spite of what he has been dragged into by the warmongers of the world.

There is a time to go to war, and there is a time to realize that it will do no good. This is not World War II; it is another morass that will cause the United States harm, just as Vietnam did.

Barbara Snider, Huntington Beach

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To the editor: It’s curious that Daddis should mention Korea, Cambodia and Bosnia as examples of how wars don’t achieve lasting peace.

If America had not gone to war against the North Koreans and Chinese, South Koreans would be under the thumb of a brutal regime responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its own citizens.

Cambodia? Does anyone remember how the genocidal Khmer Rouge was stopped? It was after Vietnam invaded and went to war with Cambodia.

Bosnia? The genocide stopped after President Clinton sent in U.S. bombers.

The fanciful notion that we can somehow enter a utopian world of peace if only America would abandon the use of military force is dangerous and pure folly.

Jerry Glass, Lakewood

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To the editor: Daddis has to be kidding. What good is war? To employ and discipline otherwise disaffected youth and to enrich the defense contractors and their CEOs, political campaign recipients and hired ex-generals.

Ellen Strenski, Palm Springs

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To the editor: The song “War, what is it good for?” was a piece of agitprop promoting handing Vietnam over to the communists.

Otherwise, war is good for a lot of things, such as protecting innocent people from tyrants, fools and madmen.

Patrick M. Dempsey, Granada Hills

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