Who Should Rebuild Iraq After Invasion?

Re “Move Past the Grudges,” editorial, March 30: A claim that letting others help with the reconstruction of Iraq will help gain their support in the future is wrong. If we allow nations to profit without supporting us, we will be encouraging similar behavior in the future. Generosity by us to France, Japan and Germany in the past is something these nations have taken for granted. Not only should we deny them contracts when the rebuilding takes place, but contracts presently existing with these nations should be voided.

As to these nations helping us in the fight against terrorism, they will continue to help us as long as they feel threatened and not one second longer. Charles de Gaulle believed that nations did not have friends, only self-interest, and France’s recent actions indicate this selfish view is alive and well in that country. Contracts should be awarded to those allies who have aided us, not the ones who have obstructed us.

Joseph R. Wachter

Laguna Hills

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Your editorial left me unimpressed. Every day The Times prints letters and articles written by folks who can’t get past their grudges against anything or anyone who is not part of a lock-step liberal agenda. Those folks are sure that Bush’s election was illegitimate, sure the war is all about oil, sure some Republican fat cats will profit from the war, etc., and The Times continues to foment their manufacture of hyperbole and half-truth extensions of false assumptions by printing them. I can only assume that The Times editorial was aimed at readers, not governments, to subtly entreat consumers not to vote with their wallets and to continue to buy French and German products. Well, this consumer is buying American.

Kenneth K. Ebmeier

Temecula

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I read on the April 2 front page how the Bush administration is bickering about how to best rebuild an American Iraq. What I couldn’t find anywhere is what the Bush administration plans to do about the child who lost his limbs and his family (A9). Now that would be news.

Elissa Tognozzi

Santa Monica