Blind to history

One wishes that President Bush would read the front page of the Jan. 26 Times. Alissa Rubin’s “Dispatch from Iraq” (“Abduction Forces a Grim Look at What a Story Is Worth,” Column One) eloquently describes the unacceptable risk to human life that our military occupation of Iraq has brought about. And Christopher Knight’s review of the new Getty Villa reminds us again that arrogance and overreaching bring about the downfall of once-great empires.

But it seems to be in the nature of our present leadership to ignore both the evidence and the lessons of history.

CLAIRE GORFINKEL

Altadena