Wolfowitz Escaped Death but Many GIs Have Not

Re “Wolfowitz Unhurt in Baghdad Shelling,” Oct. 26: It looks like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the principal architects of the war in Iraq, has escaped death.

Unfortunately, this cannot be said for the young American soldiers who die daily in the worsening quagmire of Iraq.

Wolfowitz has been interested in expanding American empire since the ‘90s. He believes that a massive U.S. military presence in every part of the world will be able to achieve some sort of Pax Americana. It is time for Congress to call Wolfowitz and the Bush regime on their lies and manipulation of facts and intelligence. An investigation should be carried out to see if there was a conspiracy to defraud Congress and the American people with regard to their true intent of invading Iraq.

Charlie Wilken

Northridge

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President Bush insists that the “liberal media” ignore the positive news stories coming from Iraq and then Wolfowitz’s hotel gets bombed. The irony is remarkable.

Wendy Robertson

Encinitas

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It appears that the failure to capture Saddam Hussein has resulted in a strong Hussein who is successfully in control and conducting a war of terror against our U.S. forces in Iraq. When will the American people and Bush accept the real facts that we have not yet won this war? Our brave young men are dying daily while this administration is ever so busy flaunting its success.

Anne Lebrecht

Newport Beach

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Re “Still Waiting for the Euphoria,” by John Zogby, Commentary, Oct. 27: How you view the Zogby poll in Iraq must depend largely on the baggage you’re carrying. If euphoria is required to pronounce intervention in Iraq a success, then of course it’s a failure. No euphoria, that’s for sure.

If satisfaction of the Iraqi people at Hussein being gone and the Baathist Party being deposed is success, however, then we’ve hit the bull’s-eye. Most Iraqis think the future will be better for them.

Is the way ahead unclear? Of course, but do the critics of the war really mourn the passing of this strange, crypto-fascist/Stalinist state, a 1984 beyond anything Orwell dreamed of? The Iraqi people certainly don’t, and we shouldn’t let the lack of “euphoria” obscure our understanding of this point.

James A. Gorton

Pasadena

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Details about the pledges being given to Iraq by various countries are now emerging (“$13 Billion for Iraq Exceeds Expectations but Falls Short,” Oct. 25).

The $1-million pledge by the Philippines is “more in kind than in cash,” Philippine presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said last week. He added that it would be in the form of “medical missions, humanitarian missions and assistance in the postwar reconstruction.”

Imagine that: The U.S. is now begging for money from a country that has to give up 40% of its budget to service the payments for a $52-billion national debt (the Philippines) and from another that has 350 million people living in dire poverty (India). Unbelievable.

Joaquin Buenaflor

Glendale