Public and Congress Didn’t Pay Timely Attention to Iraq

Re “Congress Wants Answers on Bush’s Plans for Iraq,” April 19: This sums up all that is wrong with America. The problem isn’t that one full year after we invaded Iraq, Congress finally starts asking for a plan from the Bush administration. The problem is that Americans do not pay attention to current events until things get really bad. We have the ability to craft a truly representative government, yet fewer than half of us vote and fewer still take the time to find out what’s really going on in politics and world events.

We’ve let these people get elected (Republican and Democrat alike) who co-sign for the status quo and erode the individual American’s ability to express dissent and craft change.

To those L.A. liberals who are fighting hard for John Kerry to make everything right, I say nothing is going to change, only you’ll be able to go back to sleep for another four years.

Laura Fanning

Whittier

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I was very much against the war on Iraq for all of the reasons that have turned out to be legitimate: not enough evidence of WMD, unilateral exposure, cost, etc. It is clear now that this administration’s agenda for war on Iraq was shortsighted, costly and highly debatable in terms of effectiveness regarding the war on terror. I firmly believe that President Bush and his Cabinet deserve nothing less than to lose their jobs for such mistakes.

Having said all of that, I am convinced that we must be successful in Iraq. We must see this to a conclusion that will leave a stabilized Iraq, no matter the cost or time. This makes me even angrier at Bush and the neoconservatives who have taken over the Republican Party. I have been a registered Republican for almost 30 years, and I will be voting for Kerry in the fall.

David Hoyt

Culver City

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I never favored our troops entering Iraq, but I do recognize that now that we are there, we have a job to do and failure is not an option. That having been said, I believe that historians will always note that, as soon as the situation in Iraq seemed to be heading south, the Spanish chose to flee. At the very least they could have waited until the June 30 handover of sovereignty.

S. Kenneth Kawano

Gardena

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Michael Ramirez has hit a new low with his despicable cartoon showing Spain leaving Iraq like a dog with its tail between its legs (cartoon, Commentary, April 20). Why should any country’s soldiers be sacrificed in a war based on lies?

Carol Lopilato

Hermosa Beach

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To hell with Spain, remember Hussein!

David Lewis

Los Angeles