Bush was not made king

Re “What Bush didn’t see in Vietnam,” Opinion, Aug. 25

The question Andrew J. Bacevich’s article raises -- and it’s one he could have raised himself while enumerating President Bush’s mistaken and misguided comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam -- is this: Where is our democracy? When has it ever been the job of the executive to pursue his own agenda without reference to the will of the majority? Bush was not made king, yet he continues to pursue policies that are clearly not the result of a democratic decision-making process. Democracies may make mistakes, they may charge off in the wrong direction, but they do so as democracies, not as monarchies. Bush needs to be taken out of office.

Ted Reisse

Sherman Oaks

Bacevich’s assertion that “in unconventional wars, body counts don’t really count” is bogus. One of the main objects in warfare is to annihilate the enemy by killing them at an unacceptable rate, as was done at Hiroshima. The best way to do that is to strike suddenly and without warning at the heart of the enemy. A good start to this present fiasco was made when the U.S. drove to Baghdad, the heart of Iraq. The planning of the peace, however, was inadequate. The Army should have systematically entered each problem area and disarmed it, including all self-styled militias. Simultaneously, the Army should have fenced off the border with Syria and Iran. Finally, the U.S. should have dictated unconditional peace terms. None of this can be done by the U.S. because it is a democracy that politicizes everything, including correctness. If the world’s greatest superpower cannot fight wars in the above way, it should not go to war in the first place.

Thomas Z. Taylor

Yucca Valley

Re “Next stop: Ho Chi Minh City,” Opinion, Aug. 24

Rosa Brooks’ satiric Op-Ed article on Bush’s misreading of the lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War would be more humorous if the implications of his distorted thinking were not so potentially disastrous. The president is beating the drum loudly in an attempt to sway American public opinion through, once again, fear-mongering and resorting to his stay-the-course bromide. It seems unbelievable that congressional Democrats and their moderate Republican colleagues (there must be some) will continue to allow this administration to hold this great nation in its perverse and self-defeating vise. Ironically, perhaps only the military can rescue the nation from continuing on its tragic course.

Rachel Galperin

Encino

What makes Bush’s comparison of Vietnam to Iraq particularly egregious is the fact that he was technically a deserter from the first conflict and probably would have done the same for the second.

John Blumenthal

Westlake Village