Blaming the Victims Is Not Appropriate

Re “What Does Revenge Accomplish? Voices, Sept. 15: Prof. C. Alton Robertson gets an F in history. He suggests that we look to our past foreign policy mistakes as possible justification for the horrendous events of last week. We should consider the plight of the Palestinians in their refugee camps, he urges. He fails to mention that the Palestinian leadership has summarily refused each of several offers which would have established their own homeland.

If the good professor is having difficulty making a distinction between the bombing of Cambodia and the use of military force to eliminate the terrorists who attacked us on our own soil, then he needs to go back to class, as a student.

Bob Grandolfo

Anaheim Hills

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Robertson states the latest mantra that we must blame the victims when criminals commit criminal acts. He implies that if the victims hadn’t been so cruel, these vicious criminals would have grown up to be nice boys.

I will buy Robertson a ticket to New York so that he can personally tell the families of the dead and wounded that it’s their government’s fault. Better yet, let him tell the brave New York firemen face to face.

Daniel Langbaum

Los Angeles