What are we waiting for sticking to the bumpers of our cars a yellow magnetic ribbon with the words "Support our diplomats"? Really, the actions of the Bush administration are motive for a public protest.

A. Dalmau

So Rupert Murdoch was for the book and the interview before being against the book and the interview. It is curious that the usual choir of rightwing parrots posing as bloggers and media pundits have not note Mr. Murdoch's flip-flop.

The American Enterprise Institute’s apparatchik Frederick Kagan argues that “ ...we must keep fighting to win as long as victory remains possible . . . . the signs are more hopeful than they have been in many months. It would be a tragedy for America and for Iraq to abandon the fight just as the possibility of success began to emerge”

I find this rhetoric offensive because neither Mr. Kagan, nor I, is fighting a war. In fact, since I do not have relatives or dear friends fighting in Iraq, I do not bear the burden of the war in any significant way that authorizes to invoke the sacrifice of war. I even suspect that Mr. Kagan’s position is even more comfortable than mine; I, at least, feel sadden every time Americans die or gets maimed in this ill-conceived and unnecessary war. Moreover, I am deeply sorry for the Iraqi civilians who bear the incredible pain for the crass irresponsibility of our so-called leaders and their shortsighted apparatchiki. Mr. Kagan should remember the saying "too little, too late".

"The root of "loyal" is loi, or French for law. Under Bush, loyalty has become a law unto itself. Bush is loyal to those who break the rules but adhere to him."

Without exaggeration, this is the code of the mafia, only that in Bush's case this is the mindset of a fascist ideologue.

Sorry for this long tirade, but I have to say the following 467 words. I have been to Turkey several times because I am married to a woman born in Turkey, and my in-law family is Turkish. I totally agree with Gary Kamiya about the complexity of Turkish culture, history and contemporary society. Although it is true that the Armenian population of Anatolia was victim of a genocide, and no one should deny that, there are still a few Armenian churches open in Istanbul. Paradoxically the residence of the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church is still located in Istanbul. My wife and I visited it several years ago in spite of the uncooperative attitude of the bus driver, who refused to give directions to my wife, and thanks to the kind intervention of a police officer who explained to my wife how to get to the residence of the Greek Patriarch.

Although the war between Greeks and Turks was extremely traumatic for both peoples, the fact is that the majority of Byzantine Greeks converted to Islam over the centuries of Ottoman rule, and probably because of convenience. Otherwise, it would be rather difficult to explain the survival of a cultural produce such as Raki, the Turkish version of the Greek Ouzo In fact there is extraordinary overlapping between Turkish and Greek culinary traditions. Since my first visit to Turkey, I have been fascinated by the reasons Kamiya mentions in this article. From personal experience I know that when Turks, at least some of those I have met, are on a festive mood, they do not hesitate to listen to Greek music. Moreover, some of the Mikis Theodorakis’s and Georges Moustakis’s compact disks I have were bought on the record stores of the Beyoguglu quarter in Istanbul. One final note, those people visiting Turkey’s Mediterranean coast can visit the ruins of a village evacuated by the Anatolian Greeks at the end of the war when the first exchange of population between Greece and Turkey took place. Ironically, these ruins have been declared a national moment by the Turkish government.

The only three gold medals won by Anatolia in the first International Olympic Games were adjudicated respectively to an Anatolian Turk, an Anotolian Greek, and an Anatolian Armenian. There must be no doubt that it would have been preferable for Turkey to have remained as an example of Convivencia, which is the Spanish word for the coexistence of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Spain, Turkey,and Bosnia-Herzegovina are instances of how much convivencia has been destroyed in the Mediterranean Basin. I wonder if those who demonize Turkey care for the other two instances of forced cultural homogenization, or if they write to the President of the United States of America asking for an apology on behalf of the Native Americans

A. Dalmau