Angered by Tales of Torture in Iraq

Re “FBI Agents Complained of Prisoner Abuse, Records Say,” Dec. 21: For God’s sake, won’t someone (the president, perhaps?) stand up and say, “Stop torturing and abusing detainees. Stop now. This will not be tolerated. We are Americans and Americans do not behave this way.” Instead, we have a memo from our soon-to-be attorney general that tortures the English language as well, attempting to justify our savagery. Someday soon, we will look back and wonder what happened to our country.

Robert McKean

Newbury Park

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I applaud The Times after reading the article regarding the abuses detainees have suffered in Iraq and Cuba as reported by the FBI. But, sadly, I am ashamed to be an American when I read about the torture of these detainees. Who is protecting their basic liberties, which we brag about and cherish for ourselves?

It is an affront by the Bush administration on our basic liberties and tarnishes the efforts and memories of all our ancestors who have bravely fought and suffered so much in previous wars to protect basic freedoms from hegemonic empires and rulers. When will Americans say, “Enough is enough”?

Steve Joyce

Calabasas Park

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The FBI agents referred to what they described as a new executive order on prisoner treatment by President Bush. They described the order as allowing interrogation tactics that were forbidden for FBI agents. The records did not include a copy of the Bush order. Pentagon officials would not comment on whether there was any new order. We’ve been led to believe all along this was the doing of a few rogue soldiers.

Now it turns out Bush signed an executive order authorizing, shall we say, “aggressive” treatment of prisoners? This disgusting chapter in our history has been brought to you by the occupant of the Oval Office. The buck stops there.

Mark McIntyre

Los Angeles

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Re “Bush Foresees a Deeper U.S. Role in Iraq,” Dec. 21: With the additional forces, we can look forward to more killings and deaths. Thank you, Mr. President, for giving us this astonishing news, especially just a few days before Christmas. A very merry Christmas to you, sir.

Mayer Gerson

Northridge

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Re “Blast Kills 22 at U.S. Base,” Dec. 22: I am sorrowful, reading of still another attack on our kids. I can picture the tears of the families of the dead and wounded. And I am furious at this incompetent administration of vacuous ideologues that has replaced the once-vaunted domino theory of communist expansion that got us into Vietnam with the domino theory of democratic expansion in the Mideast and marched us into Iraq. I ask myself how the American voting public could be so ignorant of this administration’s multiplicity of blunders that it voted to reelect these loose cannons.

David Perlman

Laguna Beach