‘Contras, Freedom Fighters,’ Continued

On Aug. 1 View ran an article titled “Adventurer Devotes Energy to Anti-Communist Causes” by Paul Dean. Then, on Aug. 25, View published a letter titled, “Of Contras and Freedom Fighters” from a gentleman (Richard Green of Garden Grove) who took issue with the Aug. 1 article; indeed, the gentleman went so far as to assert, “There are no Soviet troops in Central America.” Maybe so. But what about the Soviet tanks and arms in Central America?

Moving to Nicaragua, let’s not forget about the hundreds of “engineers” and “construction workers” from such peace-loving nations as Libya and East Germany who just happen to be there!

Concerning the government of Afghanistan, the gentleman letter-writer further made an extraordinary attempt to bestow legitimacy to it. In fact, the government of Afghanistan is neither effective nor respected by its own people, who are fiercely independent and who resent their Soviet puppets (the government) with a passion.

The Soviet Union, after all, isn’t rolling her tanks and troops into Afghanistan just for the fun of it, is she? Of course not! It’s no joke; hundreds and hundreds of little boys and girls in Afghanistan are getting their fingers chopped off because they happen to pick up miniature “toy” planes (explosives) that the Soviets drop from their helicopters!

Despite the fact that both Amnesty International and the United Nations now have documented the very brutal behavior of Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, there are still people in this country who will swear the Soviets are justified in their actions in Afghanistan and who will pledge allegiance to the Soviet account of events in that country. Isn’t that incredible?

DAVID TULANIAN

Sylmar

acceptance I’ve received from my family and friends. Not once have I felt rejected because of the ileostomy. The majority opinion has been that me with an ileostomy is much easier to get along with than me with ulcerative colitis. And I’ve developed a theory about the future: Any prospective partner in romance is going to have to have a big sense of humor and a large dose of compassion to put up with all that I have to offer. I figure that anyone who sticks around long enough to learn how to deal with the hearing loss, the eyesight and the allergies is probably going to see an ileostomy as just one more obstacle to overcome.

DIANE GROSS

North Hollywood