Here are all the letters to the editor that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over yesterday and today discussing the war. There's a couple of significant points. Three out of four disagree strongly with US foreign policy. Remember when LTEs were all war all the time? Also, note that the Downing Street Minutes are getting play. Finally, note that more conservatives are coming out against the war in an informed manner, while the ones that still support it are sounding less and less knowledgeable.
Do LTEs matter? Take the poll.
Not a high enough profile
Thanks to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial staff for taking up the slack. It amazes me that so many in the press considered the British memo unworthy of significant coverage. Since it provides evidence of President Bush's lies and duplicity with the British government, it should have been Page One news.
The war that Bush insisted upon is no small matter, having claimed tens of thousands of lives, maimed many times more, cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and damaged our reputation the world over.
It has brought many of us to the conclusions that our government, including Congress, is corrupt and our press is unwilling to expose this dishonesty.
DON McADAM, Atlanta
Find some real problems for a change
I thank my lucky stars daily for the brave AJC editorial staff in its fearless pursuit of President Bush for overthrowing a perfectly good dictator responsible for murdering millions of people, violating every United Nations resolution and refusing to come clean on weapons of mass destruction.
And let's not forget the constant reminders of Bush's henchmen at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib using fraternity tactics to break prisoners. What's next --- a dozen more editorials with the words "oil" "war" and "Bush" used enough to fire up the shrill left in Midtown and Decatur?
It's time for the press to shimmy out on a limb, expose real problems facing this nation and give the creation of problems for political fodder a rest.
ERIK KUEHNE, Chamblee
Similarities to Vietnam painful to see
As a strong conservative, I was deeply saddened by the article "Generals give somber outlook on war in Iraq" (News, May 20).
Substituting "Vietnam" for "Iraq" would make it read like a "nightmare" article from 40 years ago. There are many similarities --- no border control, no front lines, exaggerated "turnover" timetables, etc. Politicians will always tout major differences, but there is really only one, and it makes this war tragically worse: Few will say it, but the war in Iraq is mostly religious whereas Vietnam was at least only political.
I was deceived once. It's time to extricate ourselves from Iraq as soon as possible, secure our borders here and save our strength for battles to come.
JAMES COOL
Cool, of Alpharetta, is a Vietnam veteran.
Yet another conservative smells a rat
There is strong evidence that President Bush, far from being deceived about Iraq's WMD capabilities, was in fact the deceiver.
We know from the testimony of terrorism expert Richard Clarke that Bush was focused on removing Saddam Hussein long before Sept. 11. We know from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that the WMD scare was just an excuse that administration lackeys could agree upon. We know from the Downing Street minutes that Bush was bent on invading Iraq, and that intelligence had to be "fixed" to support this desire starting in 2002.
Now we have Paul Craig Roberts calling for Bush's impeachment for lying "in order to start a war of aggression against a country that posed no threat to the United States" (Chronicles magazine, May issue). Roberts was assistant treasury secretary under President Reagan, a Wall Street Journal editor, a distinguished fellow at the Cato Institute and a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was an architect of the Reagan tax revolution --- not exactly a liberal.
JEFF BOATRIGHT, Decatur
Keep those letters coming! To your newspaper or mine!
Editorial desk: hpost@ajc.com, cynthia@ajc.com, insideajc@ajc.com, jdwallace@ajc.com, jmellott@ajc.com, bsenftleber@ajc.com
News desk: insideajc@ajc.com, jdwallace@ajc.com, jmellott@ajc.com, bsenftleber@ajc.com, hklibanoff@ajc.com, cwarmbold@ajc.com, pgast@ajc.com