Support for Filipino Withdrawal From Iraq

Michael Ramirez’s depiction of the Filipino flag (Commentary, July 17) is a stab in the back of the Filipino people and those courageous enough to hold true to their convictions and not be swayed by political influence and greed.

The Filipino contingent does not pose any significance to the occupation of Iraq and was scheduled to depart next month. The inevitable results of this fiasco in Iraq are obvious, but when the dust clears, one Filipino will be alive and hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans will be dead.

Maybe the United States can learn something from the Philippines.

Robert Gonzaludo

Oceanside

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Ramirez expresses the standard recommended action in a hostage situation, that the hostage should be sacrificed on the principle that demands of hostage-takers should never be given in to.

That may be well and good for a people to whom the loss of one person can be written off as justified, just as the U.S. is willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of young Americans in a dubious war.

The Filipino government probably saw this as futile because, if Angelo de la Cruz had been killed, another Filipino would have been taken and the process repeated. The deaths of Nick Berg and others at the hands of their captors have not stopped hostage-taking.

Kenneth H. Bonnell

Eagle Rock

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If being a U.S. lackey in an unprovoked and unnecessary war is the criterion for Ramirez’s respect, then the Philippines is better off without his respect.

Alan and Precy Benson

Newbury Park