Victory Parades

Harry G. Summers Jr.’s Column Right (June 6) parrots prevailing ideology with pretensions to insight.

“Judge the War by Things That Didn’t Happen,” the headline instructs. Pure Orwellian sophistry. The subhead, “Was Hussein a nascent Hitler? Fortunately we’ll never know,” begs another question. “Would any of the countless peace proposals put forward have worked?” Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

He says the ratio of U.S. to Iraq battlefield casualties seems “just about right.” That argument ignores the fact of so many Iraqi casualties who had nothing to do with the battlefield.

Summers writes that “the war may have seemed to me a mistake in fashionable circles in New York. . . .” If he meant that, it shows that he not only misunderstands the motives of those who opposed the war, but also just what passes as fashionable these days. Namely, jumping on the bandwagon of jingoistic hysteria.

RON LEIGHTON, Santa Ana