President’s Poll Ratings and Pictures of Coffins

Re “Bush Approval Hits a Low Point in State,” Times poll, April 23: I have been baffled by the 44% of the population that seems to think President Bush has been doing a good job. I’m just an average person, not even a college graduate, but I read a lot. With the information available to me it is clear that we are not safer than before 9/11; our military personnel are losing their lives in a conflict that has nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11, and veterans’ lives are forever damaged by this conflict; and the economy, which had a substantial surplus to easily handle the social programs that protect all of us from unpredictable fates before Bush took office, is now down a deep hole of debt that will cost taxpayers dearly in interest payments alone for generations. Evidently even some “lifelong Republicans” are getting the message.

The image of the flag-draped coffins and the accompanying explanation of the Pentagon’s policy of censorship and secrecy (April 23) should open the eyes of the rest of those Bush supporters who have not yet begun to see the inconsistency between what he says and what is really happening.

Wendy Hughes

North Hollywood

*

What a stupid, politically motivated poll. The “war” itself may be over but our work and commitment to the Iraqi people are not. How can The Times ask a question about the “outcome” of the war when we aren’t finished? What’s the next poll -- “Do you think the manned Mars mission effort was worth it?”

Steven Pruett

Glendale

*

What is wrong with photos showing flag-draped coffins of dedicated men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country? Nothing, nothing wrong at all. What’s wrong with this current administration that fears a backlash from those very same photos? Everything.

Jeffrey Teets

Lakewood

*

The administration is up in arms about the release of pictures of flag-draped coffins coming home from Iraq. Yet Bush had no problem using a flag-draped coffin from 9/11 in his first campaign commercial.

Any irony here?

Steve Young

Chatsworth