Congress, Wake Up to Reservists’ Sacrifice

“Far From Soldiers of Fortune” (May 12) should be a wake-up for all politicians. Reservists and Guard members are fighting for America, only to lose the American dream; i.e., their homes, their businesses.

Listen up, Congress! You won’t have a weekend warrior force to send to war if you are unwilling to protect them here in the U.S. People will remove themselves from service when their enlistment is up, feeling betrayed. People will not enlist to begin with, because of the political ignorance toward our own. Politicians need to look hard at who is fighting for their freedom.

Craig A. Lawrey

Blue Jay

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Re “Officials Clash on Roles at Prison,” May 12: All the finger-pointing encompassing the Iraqi prisoner abuses should point to the very top. The ultimate culpability lies with the commander in chief, President Bush, who put the screws to the U.S. military to extract him from his political donnybrook by finding the weapons of mass destruction that served as justification for the invasion of Iraq.

Did this incessant pressure from the top down translate into the torture and brutality perpetrated on Iraqi prisoners by low-level military intelligence officers and prison guards?

Lanny Swerdlow

Palm Springs

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As one who voted for Bush in 2000, I want to take back my share of his apology for the alleged abuses of Iraqi prisoners. I apologize to my fellow Republicans for the president’s mistake. He should have said only: The matter is being investigated and those found guilty will be punished. We should not prejudge or leap to conclusions, which are the lynching tactics now being used by Democrats.

Bill Starr

Burbank

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Now Bush wants another $25 billion for Iraq, on top of the $87 billion. Oh my, what would Ronald Reagan say?

Bob Taber

Santa Maria

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I am confused about the prisoner abuse problem. Was Bush unengaged about the strong-arm tactics aimed at extracting bits of information from prisoners, or did he condone them? Either way, he needs to reevaluate his own leadership qualities.

Richard Dickinson

Glendale

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The video of the brutal beheading of an American civilian was graphically depicted on the Internet and international television (May 12), yet where was the outcry of horror and condemnation from Middle Eastern governments and/or concerned Muslim organizations?

Perhaps if one of the five black-robed and masked butchers was captured, stripped naked and photographed there would be a response. Alleged “hypocrisy” goes both ways.

James Lewis

Venice

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The prisoner abuse in Iraq should be a wake-up about prisons in general. One of the scariest things about being held captive in any prison is the lack of civilian oversight. That lack creates an environment where power is free to be corrupted.

Prison security cameras should be everywhere, and they should be watched by more than just the prison personnel. There should be human rights watchdogs always involved in every prison.

Bill Birdsall Jr.

El Segundo

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Michael Ramirez’s editorial cartoon (Commentary, May 11) distorts what happened at Abu Ghraib prison and the record of torture in American history. Lynching involved the extralegal murder of private citizens. An elected official calling for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, an appointed public official, to lose his job is in no way morally equal to murdering him.

Lynching perpetrators often burned, castrated, emasculated and otherwise tortured their victims. Rumsfeld operates the structure from which the torturers in Abu Ghraib emerged. Ramirez’s cartoon twists what happened at Abu Ghraib by inserting the supervisor of the perpetrators in the position of the victims, and it obscures the historical record of torture and murder in the U.S.

Brett Flehinger

San Bernardino

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The remarks by Bush in support of Rumsfeld (May 11) display either an ignorance of or contempt for international law and common humanity. With each passing day, the unfolding horror of what has been done by some of our military only grows. Instead of upholding accountability, Bush defends the indefensible.

Everyone in the chain of command must answer for what is obviously systemic torture and total abuse of power. Everyone. That means Bush himself. Fire Rumsfeld. All Americans, and a stunned world, are waiting.

Ruth Caper

Los Angeles