Bush Administration's foreign policy

Try diplomacy first

I agree with the sentiments expressed by Royal Scanlon (11/5, Letters).

The incessant saber rattling to war exposes a moral dilemma to the country. We find ourselves in an Orwellian state where war is the path to peace and where we need to fight our fears with bombs instead of words.

We are being told that we will exhaust all diplomatic alternatives before taking any military action against Iran (flashback to Iraq). But our diplomatic initiatives are economic sanctions. Instead of attacking with force, we are attacking with dollars and calling it diplomacy.

Our leaders refuse to talk with anyone with whom they disagree. Those are exactly whom we must maintain a dialog with.

It is our moral imperative that we choose to talk and employ reason instead of being the bully to the world.

John Mocella
Overland Park

Crisis in Pakistan

Will the Bush administration continue to support Pervez Musharraf?

The Pakistani president justifies suspending his country’s constitution, firing the chief justice of its supreme court, and having the military remove other justices from the supreme court building all because of “judicial activism” and “terrorist threats.”

How Bush reacts will say much about what he really thinks of democracy and the rule of law, in Pakistan and here. Does the spread of democracy continue apace? Or perhaps Vice President Cheney has sent Musharraf an “attaboy” cable?

David Oliver
Kansas City