Vincent’s ‘True Left’ Joins the Right in Support of War

Norah Vincent (“True Left Versus the Lunatic Fringe,” Commentary, April 3) contrasts what she calls “the true left” -- three writers who support President Bush’s war policy -- with what she calls “the lunatic fringe,” which holds that the war is morally unjustified. If Vincent regards the pope, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and the majority of informed, morally concerned people in the world as “lunatic” while Christopher Hitchens, Paul Berman and Nat Hentoff are “the real thinkers,” she should at least fairly report the moral reasoning of educated critics of the war policy.

William H. Forthman

Northridge

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In heralding the “quiet renaissance” of “the left,” Vincent names three of its voices -- Hitchens, Hentoff and Berman -- all of whom she praises for speaking out against the antiwar movement. In her calculus, those of us who continue to question the legitimacy and ethics of the U.S. war against Iraq become part of an “outrageous,” “degenerate” lunatic fringe.

With this sleight of hand, Vincent has magically transformed the American left and right into a single “united” force in favor of the war, defending against the war-protesting “lunatics.” And that she represents the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies -- what irony.

Molly Hiro

Los Angeles

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Vincent posits that a new left, with a foundation of brilliant minds, will emerge from this war. Perhaps. But what the American people will remember are the Hollywood left (now strangely silent), Michael Moore’s shouting diatribe and professors like Nicholas De Genova who hope our troops will die in a “million Mogadishus.” That’s an enormous legacy to overcome.

Paul Knopick

Laguna Hills

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Re “U.N. Has a Part in Rebuilding Iraq, Powell Says,” April 5: “

Charles S. Hoff

Rancho Palos Verdes

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I’m 55 years old and served in the military from 1966 to 1974. My family has a tradition of military service, so it never occurred to me, or my brothers, not to serve in wartime. I’ve never felt any animosity toward those who thought the Vietnam War was wrong and refused to serve. I do take issue with chicken hawks who supported the war but avoided service. I’m sick of hearing Bush administration officials calling every enemy a coward. Cowards are the war cheerleaders and profiteers lacking the personal courage to put their butt where their mouth is.

Cowards attack the weak, even though the strong are a greater danger. This war could be about people at the top of our government trying to prove they are not cowards, 35 years too late.

John R. Boydstun

Woodland Hills

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The more this administration and its supporters claim the war in Iraq has no resemblance to Vietnam, the more we see it unfold as an exact replica. I wonder how Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s book will read. Will it at all resemble another secretary of Defense’s book? You know the one, where he told the American public, after years of death and devastation, in retrospect: Oops, sorry. We made a mistake.

Daniel Cano

Los Angeles