The flap about Kerry’s comments

Re “Campaign fireworks fly as polls show Senate in play,” Nov. 1

Does anyone really think “the troops” care more about a perceived insult from Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a decorated veteran who is not even running for office, than being shot at every day by an insurgency the incompetent Bush administration failed to anticipate in its negligent prewar planning?

WILLIAM LORTON

Los Angeles

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I know now more than ever that I was right not to vote for Kerry for president in 2004. Massachusetts should be terribly embarrassed and ashamed. Our all-volunteer military, many with advanced degrees, does not deserve politically inspired insults.

BILL GOURLAY

Westlake Village

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Again President Bush is showing his hypocrisy by demanding that Kerry apologize for a crudely worded dig directed at him. As a combat veteran, I’m wondering when the commander in chief is going to apologize to the nation and the families of the more than 2,000 American troops killed in Iraq since he so brazenly declared, “Mission accomplished.” I regret that I have but one vote to return our country to sanity.

PHIL WILT

Van Nuys

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Poor John Kerry. Wasn’t there enough room for him in the preelection dungeon that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has interned her party in over the last month? I don’t see how he can spin his way out of this political blunder.

As a compassionate conservative, I feel sorry for anyone with Kerry on his team.

MIKE KIHM

Rancho Cucamonga

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Kerry mangled a joke. Big deal. What’s silly is to get condemnation from someone like Bush, who has mangled the language more times than can be counted. This is the man who famously complained during the last campaign, “Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country,” and who said of education, “You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”

I’m not so certain that a competition over who screws up the most in public speaking is one that this White House wants.

RANDAL SNYDER

Los Angeles