Who needs an American empire?
Re “Americans lack the stuff of empire,” Opinion, Oct. 24
Niall Ferguson asks: “Why can’t 300 million Americans control fewer than 30 million Iraqis?” I ask: Why would we think we have the right to? Why would we want to blow our hard-earned money on killing the flower of our youth?
JERRY SMALL
Venice
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Ferguson inadvertently hit on the solution to two problems: a shortage of military personnel and lack of prison space. Simply assign as many as needed from the 2-million-strong prison population to the military for the duration of their sentences. The murderers wouldn’t need much training.
CHARLES E. BLOOMQUIST
Venice
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Ferguson seems disappointed by America’s failure as an imperial power in the mold of Victorian England and wonders, “Why can’t 300 million Americans control fewer than 30 million Iraqis?” Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to him that most of us don’t want to, and that it’s only a few megalomaniacs in Washington -- and, apparently, at least one historian -- who consider world domination a desirable goal.
KATHY BARRETO
Culver City
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