Letters to the Editor
djtoth
Published Letters: 215 Editor's Choice: 47
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Cover Issues Not Politics
[Read the article: Gore in 2008? It's getting hot in here]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I enjoy Salon, but Al Gore is right. Cover the issues and the politics will follow. I have been reading the opinions of a number of Constitutional Law scholars on the legality of NSA spying activities, something Salon should have been covering. This is exactly what most politicians do not want us doing. Instead, the Bush administration seems to want us involved in the daily soap opera of Washington politics. They would rather we listen to Michael Hayden spout sports metaphors about national security. Here is my challange, Salon: Go after the issues. Give us some in-depth analysis of the issues and then tell us what our politicians are saying and tell us how they are voting. I can search the net myself, you know.
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Signing Statements
[Read the article: Meet the Bush administration's Keyser Soze]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Isn't it more important to examine the content of the signing statements and their legality rather than talking about who wrote them and engaging name calling even if Keyser Soze.
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Back Interpreting the Way Forward
[Read the article: White House wordplay]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Technically speaking, if you interpret something, it means that you interpret something that has already been written or said. I don't have to back interpret Hamlet, I can just interpret it. Back interpreting, if I can back interpret Tony Snow, means to go back and actually change the text without changing the words. For example, I can see Tony Snow making the back interpretation that "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," was the height of sarcasim. People who don't know the president, and there are a lot of them, just don't understand his dry wit. He is the most intelligent man I know. And, by the way, Mission Accomplished was the name of the mission.
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Iraq-Nam
[Read the article: The massacre at Haditha, or a few "bad apples" revisited]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The handbook on military massacres is The Peers Commission Report on Mai Lai. The report shows that the responsibility for the massacre went far up the chain of command. The report, however, does not explain why some of the men of Charlie Company slaughtered innocent civilians and others did not. What caused the Nixon administration to cover up the massacre instead of taking responsibility is part of the problem, part of the culture of war. The Peers report ended General Peers' career. Ron Ridenhour who brought the story of Mai Lai to his congressman, and Lt. Thompson, the helicopter pilot who landed and tried to stop the massacre were vilified by congress. Only William Calley was convicted and served time even though other members of Charlie Company testified that they had participated. Nixon, who did not want Calley tried, was afraid of sending the wrong message to the troops. All the while the Pentagon was pressuring senior officers to produce body count, and that pressure was felt throughout the chain of command, especially by officers whose careers depended upon producing results. Perhaps in the end all of the reasons do not explain why the massacre occurred. A great deal, however, has to do with the culture of war. When we look at the Haditha Massacre, we might ask what culture has the Bush administration created. If I were the Marines looking for a few bad apples, I might start looking at the top of the barrel. It is, of course, much easier to find a few bad apples than to understand why things rot.
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The Long View of History Versus the Wrong View of History
[Read the article: The worst president? A poll says it's Bush]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As George Bush recently said, "You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone." That is certainly true for Ronald Reagan. If Reagan can become a great president, life truly is like a box of chocolates.
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It's Time to Cry Sheep
[Read the article: Wait, you mean we didn't find any WMD?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I happened to mistakenly turn my television to CNN awhile ago and saw the Wolfeman doing an interview with Richard Clarke. At the end of the interview Clarke said, "By the way, Wolfe, this isn't really the situation room." Good point, Richard.
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Bye, Bye Miss American Pie
[Read the article: A White House farewell letter]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Scott McClellan asked you to correct a factual error? That in itself is a fitting epitaph.
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The Emotionally Charged Issue That No One Cares About
[Read the article: The president, his party and the public's priorities]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Would somebody please tell what the issue is? Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss has said that tribal societies gave women in marriage as tokens of peace. That strategy has worked well down through the ages. Marriage is one of society's least successful institutions while war is one of our most successful. How can an institution that is less than 50% successful be the cornerstone of a stable society? I think we need to build our society on successful institutions like divorce. I only know of a handful of cases in which it has failed.
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Senator Inhofe
[Read the article: But what if pride goeth before a fall?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You must have lots of closet space.
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But, We Have Been Swift-Boated None the Less
[Read the article: Memo to Coulter: Your Swift boat is leaking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Coulter has nothing meaningful to say, and that is exactly the point. What she and people like Rove do so successfully is change and control the discourse. Coulter's attack is not against those who lost loved ones on 9/11, it is against those liberals and conservatives who do not support the Bush Administration. She incites the true believers and she enmeshes the opposition in meaningless argument. Like Coulter's diatribe, The Federal Marriage Ammendment is nothing more than political propaganda. Most Americans may disagree with same sex marriage, but it is also clear that they also disagree that amending the consitution is necessary. It is one of a complex of non-issues used by people like Coulter and Rove to refocus the political conversation away from the tragic failures and blatant violations of the law of the Bush Administration. As Coulter makes the rounds of the talk shows talking about a book that almost no one will actually read, the Bush loyalists will stew in their anger that the liberals are using those who have lost people to terrorism and war, you know the millionaire broads, to unfairly promote their agenda, while those who oppose the administration feel compelled to rationally challange an attack that is without merit or credibility. After having training along side the Swift Boat sailors at Mare Island during the Viet Nam War, the one lesson I learned was to nod politely as they spoke but not to jump on board with them.