The wide gap dividing the U.S.

Re “Making peace with ourselves,” Opinion, Oct. 21

The “unifier” article by Charles A. Kupchan and Peter L. Trubowitz is actually a thinly disgusted case of “let’s be reasonable and do it my way.” Laudably proclaiming consensus on foreign policy, the authors then indulge in a practice that today accounts for much of the discord. Such statements as “today’s political impasse is not just the result of President Bush’s misguided war” and “the Bush administration continues to use terrorism as a tool of partisan warfare rather than a cause for bringing the country together” will not cure our discord in foreign affairs. In fact, such partisan self-indulgence represents our national disease. For us to get together on foreign policy, first we must show respect for other people’s opinions, even if we do not agree with them.

Jack Kaczorowskithe

Los Angeles

Republicans wishfully think it is possible to heal the national political rift without giving up policies that have divided us so severely, i.e. the ideology of the unitary executive that has led to usurping the power of Congress and violations of the Constitution, or the free-trade globalization scheme that is undermining the nation’s sovereignty and destroying the economic base for our democratic republic. Republicans are going to have to admit they are wrong. What is needed is FDR-style leadership that calls for an abrupt halt to the above and substitutes peaceful redevelopment for the U.S. together with cooperative developmental assistance to the rest of the world. Nothing the Republicans have shown us holds any hope for our existence as a nation or promises anything but continued world conflict, misery, poverty and death.

Geri A.

Mellgren-Kerwin

Burbank