A ‘High Risk’ Threat Level; Dispute Over Lynch Rescue
I’m so glad that we went to war with Iraq so that the American public can be safer. Now that Saddam Hussein is defeated we can lower our threat level. But wait, we’re raising the threat level to “high risk” (May 21). Does this mean that all those billions of dollars spent and all the lives lost have not made us safer? Well, at least we found all those weapons of mass destruction that Iraq had.
Elizabeth Estrada
Mission Viejo
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John Waugen (letter, May 20) suggested that Times readers are writing idiotic letters about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and asks why it is necessary to find them. It is necessary because President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that they were there and that we knew where they were. Waugen suggests that they are complaining before the game is over. Game? Thousands of lives lost and this is a game?
People are writing because finding weapons was used as an excuse to bomb and take over Iraq. Things are going well for Bush because people are not complaining about being tricked into supporting a war that was unnecessary.
Arthur P. Nelson Jr.
North Hills
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Are we supposed to be surprised that Al Qaeda is renewing its terrorist vows against the U.S.? We all knew that going into Iraq would have these types of consequences. Sometimes I wonder if the Bush administration grasps even the simplest concepts of foreign policy.
Douglas G. Stanley
Trabuco Canyon
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Re “Saving Private Lynch: Take 2,” Commentary, May 20: Robert Scheer can twist any situation tied to the Bush administration as just one in a series of egregious lies. Scheer’s sources, other media, are used to conjure up his weekly diatribe seething with hate and contempt for Bush. He states the rescue of Jessica Lynch was pure Hollywood, reportedly a bit of Pentagon fiction. Scheer’s left-wing proclivity has him blinded.
Gloria Simms
Winnetka
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I am all for contrarian viewpoints on the Commentary page, but Scheer’s relentless, gleeful attempts to malign Bush and the U.S. military reached a new low. To take a BBC report and present it as fact when people directly involved in the event completely disagree with its premise is lazy journalism at best. Scheer does no credit to The Times.
Jonathan Lloyd
Los Angeles
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Re Scheer’s column: It is very clear that this administration has no shame and continues to lie to our citizens with complete impunity. These people need to realize that the average citizen is a lot smarter than they think.
Why the silence by our mainstream media, and when, exactly, did they decide to surrender their objectivity and to participate in this deception under the banner of patriotism? It is a shame that many TV networks have lost a lot of credibility in order to get better access to information and interviews with key figures in this administration. Honesty and objectivity are quickly becoming virtues of the past.
Mohy Abdelgany
Irvine