Unfettered Letters

Oil and the war in Iraq

Two weeks ago, most news sources mentioned that four international oil companies (not American) are being awarded no-bid contracts to receive oil produced from Iraq (6/20, Business, “Iraq prepares to tie up deals with oil companies”). There was almost no more media discussion on the topic, but this was one of the major news releases of the year.

According to disillusioned White House insiders, this is what Dick Cheney has been working on since before the Iraq invasion. This is the reason for the invasion of Iraq, the deaths and serious injuries of tens of thousands of American soldiers, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths and the total devastation of Iraq. Not to mention the financial costs to the American taxpayer. And no one seems to care or to be outraged.

Life must be great out there in America to ignore such examples of criminal activity from a renegade administration. Are you numb or just don’t care anymore?

Paul Yeager
Lenexa

Guantanamo detainees

Detainee abuse series

The agenda of the The Star was, as usual, apparent with respect to the expose on detainee abuse from Afghanistan to Gitmo. Borrowing John Kerry’s brush, the author paints a picture of the American soldier as a stupid, angry thug looking for some brown-skinned people to beat as a cathartic release of pentup anger lingering from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Conversely, the detainees are disingenuously portrayed as innocent victims just minding their own business when indiscriminately detained and beaten by these brutes.

Jared Bartels
Lee’s Summit

Detainee rights

After reading “Bush critical of ruling on detainee rights,” (6/13, National/World)) I wondered how six lawyers could think the way they do.

How could five Supreme Court justices think foreign combatants deserve protection in U.S. civil courts? And how could Barack Obama think this ruling is “an important step toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law?”

Has the strict adherence to law now become the end, rather than the means to a better one?

Fifty percent of our Declaration of Independence signers were lawyers. Yet these people steeped in law realized when it was necessary to change their situation rather than strictly follow the laws of England.

The difference between then and now is the absence of a warrior heart. Those in the past used theirs to discern when circumstances required a temporary change in normal behavior so they could act to improve the future, before returning to normal. Those today rarely have the heart to act.

Dennis Batliner
Overland Park

Shortsighted energy policy

In April 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech: “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.” At that time the price of gasoline was about $1.50 per gallon.

I filled the tank on our hybrid car the other day, and it required 10.4 gallons. That amount of gasoline had taken us 540 miles. We would have used more than three times as much gasoline to have driven those same miles in our SUV. Yet, the national government is reducing or eliminating the tax incentive to purchase hybrid cars.

America is paying a dear price for the failure of the national government to adopt a smart, comprehensive energy policy, with an emphasis on conservation of petroleum. Unfriendly nations collect our petro-dollars, car manufacturers close plants and discharge employees, airlines reduce flights and discharge employees, consumers have less to spend on things other than gasoline, the cost of nearly everything we buy goes up as transportation companies pass on the higher cost of fuel, and farmers must sell their crops for higher prices because they have to pay more for fuel and fertilizer.

James F. Duncan
Olathe

Flawed intelligence led to war

The Star’s analysis on the Iraq report (6/7, Opinion. “A lesson to future administrations”) makes clear that the editors failed to read the actual report.

Readers may be surprised that Democrats concluded the administration’s statements on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were “substantiated by intelligence.”

The same conclusion was found regarding statements on Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, biological weapons and ties to al-Qaida.

And while The Star trivializes the fact, Democrats in the Senate examined the same intelligence as the administration and they, too, characterized Iraq as a growing and dangerous threat.

In 2002, the current Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman said “there is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years.”

The record is rife with similar statements that speak to the crux of the matter: The intelligence leading up to the war was wrong.

The bottom line is that flawed intelligence, not administration deception, led to policy makers’ statements and decisions.

To prevent repeating these failures, we must put national security over politics and work together to reform our intelligence operations.

We owe this much to the American families whose safety depends on our getting this job right.

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond
Republican, Missouri
Washington, D.C.

Editor’s note: Bond is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Why now, Scott McClellan?

The media and White House surrogates are atwitter about Scott McClellan’s new book with its revelations about the inner workings of our government (5/29, A-1, “Insider faults run-up to war”). Why didn’t McClellan speak up sooner? Why did he not speak louder, and why now? Keep in mind that McClellan’s job as press secretary was to present the administration’s point of view as favorably as possible. That he did. He was not there to critique the president or the administration.

Hundreds of others were in the same position: the Cabinet members who did not agree with many programs, the senior managers in the Pentagon and the hundreds of generals in the field witnessing the mess in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We need only look to Colin Powell, as competent a soldier who has worn the uniform, being a good soldier and going along with the program. Hindsight provides a clearer picture. The truth often hurts.

Robert W. Johnson
Olathe

Why is Scott McClellan publishing a book that bashes the administration he represented as press secretary?

McClellan has said “I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be.” Was he without morals, naive, misled or stupid?

Why, all of a sudden, does he feel the need to have a public confession? Is it the need to clear his conscience or the way to stab some enemies in the back? Might be a little of both, but I doubt it. After all, he could have resigned anytime.

I submit it is for money. Now that he has joined the Bush-bashers he will sell many more books. Nice way to make millions more.

Glad he is not one of my friends. What a man to trust. I find it hard to believe he has the public’s interest at heart.

John H. Brown Jr.
Independence

Views on What Happened

Democrats and their allies in the media are claiming that Scott McClellan’s new book confirms that the Bush administration deliberately lied about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (5/29, A-1, “Insider faults run-up to war”).

I think it’s important to keep this issue in its proper perspective. For more than a decade prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, there was a bipartisan, multi-administration and multinational consensus that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

“The consensus was the same, from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration,” said Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2004. “It was the same intelligence belief that our allies and friends around the world shared.”

Kevin Groenhagen
Lawrence

Political spin is an amazing thing. Does anyone really think that former White House secretary Scott McClellan’s memoir, What Happened, revealed something new?

The Bush administration has been spinning tales for many years now. The only thing this book does is corroborate, from an insider, what all of us “outsiders” believe to be true in the first place.

Susan F. Weiner
Overland Park

Only Bush loyalists are surprised by Scott McClellan’s charges of Bush’s mismanagement, blundering, and arrogance. While present Bush staffers and friends like Karl Rove — once known as “Bush’s Brain” — are feeling “sad” and “puzzled,” they’re not denying McClellan’s claims, such as the use of propaganda to sell this disastrous war.

Those who have never been Bush fans find Scott McClellan’s new conscience welcome but much too late.

Steve Walker
Kansas City

Scott “Judas” McClellan should go to Iran and Iraq for a book signing and express his personal guilt and give his book money to the Iran University School of Journalism and Loyalty.

He could take Obama Airlines and fly over New York City and check out the skyline and see if any buildings are missing.

While over there, he could stop and check out the Marine barracks in Lebanon. I forgot, that is gone, too, plus more than 200 Marines.

David L Davis
Leavenworth

Ex-press secretary’s book

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan admits in his new book that President Bush misled the American public on the war in Iraq (5/29, A-1, “Insider faults run-up to war; Explosive memoirs draw counterattack from colleagues who accuse him of disloyalty”). McClellan is not a politician, but rather an insider in the know.

This war has caused countless thousands of deaths of Iraqis, more than 4,000 deaths of U.S. soldiers, untold suffering and has cost the American public billions of dollars.

I cannot help but remember the fury and public outrage over former President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. The press went crazy over oral sex and yet remains nearly silent at proof that President Bush lied repeatedly and deceived the country.

Perhaps it is the fault of you and me, who react more to an affair than an illegal invasion of another country. And perhaps it is the fault of you and me, who think that our press is not manipulated by politics.

Christopher J. Varady
Kansas City

Scott McClellan’s revelations should surprise no one. Whether President Bush was led willingly or duped into invading Iraq will be debated by historians.

The real question is the objective of those who persuaded Bush to invade Iraq. What did these people want? Were American interests secondary to their objectives? Who and why are the real questions.

Al Elton
Leawood

Peace rally signs

This is in response to Ross Balano’s Blog Bit (5/22, Opinion, “You call this a peace rally?”): My husband and I carry signs at the peace rallies that say, “Out of Iraq Now, Not to Iran.” But we also know the reason we are in Iraq is because of Bush and Cheney’s actions.

Since rallies are an expression of democratic freedoms, other people have the right to carry signs with any messages they want. As a result, many of our colleagues’ signs connect Bush and Cheney with the war itself.

Perhaps Mr. Balano would like to attend one of the rallies (Sundays 4 to 5 p.m. at J.C. Nichols Fountain and Tuesdays 5 to 6 p.m. at 63rd and Ward Parkway) to see the messages for himself.

Kris Cheatum
Kansas City

‘True leadership’ needed

Roger Merryfield’s, Midwest Voices (2/16) points out: Our “nation is starving for true leadership.” That is an excellent depiction of our problem. Between the parties, he says: “It absurdly may have become more important to have an opposing opinion than a correct one.”

His solution: “voters must raise their expectations and hold elected officials accountable…” Judge the idea, not which party is presenting it.

For the most part, successful candidates don’t dance to the tune of the people. The lobbyists are their pipers. Lobbyists hold the purse strings to the money that elects our officials today. All too often, our choices are limited to those who have risen to the top already financed by special interest money.

Until we have a total overhaul of campaign finance and kick corporate money out of the process, we will be stuck with the problem Mr. Merryfield has so aptly identified.

Paul Rola
Kansas City

Roger Merryfield’s column in Saturday’s edition should be required reading for every politician in office and those who are running. I have been so discouraged by our leaders’ inability to work together on anything. John McCain is criticized for reaching across the aisle to work with the Democrats. How are we ever going to accomplish anything when no one will cooperate?

Please, please, please be a leader. Put the welfare of the country above your next election and the promotion of your party.

Mary Anne White
Bonner Springs, Kan.

Keeping Americans safe

Robert Lewis (2/14, Letters, “Administration failures”) ridicules President Bush for saying that election of a Democrat could harm our peace and prosperity. Have we been attacked on our soil since 9/11?

He also complains about the economy slipping into recession. We should have had a deep recession after 9/11, but we didn’t.

As far as “perhaps it is not too late to impeach this fool,” the only fool here is Mr. Lewis. If any proof were available, the president would have been impeached long ago, and I would have cheered them on.

Joseph Moore (2/14, “War on terror”) states, “This is the land of the terrified.” I don’t know anyone who is terrified. If we had continuing attacks on our soil post-9/11, I might be. But thanks to the wiretapping and impediments to travel, we have not been attacked.

I would much rather we be fighting terrorists in the magnet we have created for them — Iraq — than here.

As to his quip “…who knew shoes were so deadly?” If the “shoe bomber” had not been incompetent, you would have known.

Moore writes, “We waterboard…” As far as I can see, it was a total of three people, in an extreme emergency, and it was successful, saving many lives.

Bill Moses
Liberty

Administration fails at peace

Administration failures

Can I believe my eyes? The Star reports President Bush is concerned that the election of a Democrat in November could harm our “peace and prosperity.”

Is the president now so totally removed from reality that he is unaware we are currently at war, with troops in the field, in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Does he now know his administration seems hell-bent on provoking another war with Iran?

Is he unable to understand the financial reports that demonstrate he has doubled our national debt during his administration?

Does he not know his administration has been responsible for lackluster job creation, a sub-prime mortgage crisis affecting homeowners nationwide, and an economy slipping into a recession?

Our nation will only have to suffer under his incompetent ignorance for less than a year now, but perhaps it is not too late to impeach this fool, remove him from office, and subject him to full punishment for the laws he has broken.

Robert Lewis
Independence

War on terror

Vladimir Lenin once said, “The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize.” Look at what it has done to us: We have wire-tapped our citizens, barricaded our borders and impeded our travel if we have fingernail clippers, breast milk or a Bic. And who knew shoes were so deadly?

We have kidnapped uncharged persons and “renditioned” them to secret prisons for torture. We have failed others in Gitmo, calling them “enemy combatants,” which somehow magically strips them of the barest of human rights.

We waterboard, but it is not torture, because the administration says it’s not.

And none of this is our business because disclosing these facts “would endanger national security.”

All this in the name of “keeping America safe.”

Safe?

This is the land of the terrified.

If the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, it seems we are not winning the “war on terror.”

Joseph H. Moore
Kansas City

Human rights in Cuba

Trick question: Who is currently responsible for perpetrating the most serious human rights violations in the island of Cuba, Fidel Castro or George W. Bush? (Hint: In what large Caribbean island is the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay located?)

Pablo La Rosa
Mission

Spend or save?

Seems that the Bush administration can suspend common sense adages, like “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” We are advised to rescue the economy from recession by buying, buying, buying, but also to subsidize our retirement by saving because Social Security is getting short of funds.

Marvin Goodman
Lenexa

History will tell

Over the past few weeks, I have followed with interest several opinion page exchanges between Bush lovers and haters. Let me submit that the final assessment of the Bush presidency is 20 years away. Much like the Reagan national security and economic legacy, whether Bush’s principals are the right governing principals for today will only be known in the future.

Principled leadership is risky. The intended outcome may not be immediate, so it draws fire from the shortsighted. President Bush’s leadership over the last seven years has been tough for some. His principals do not meet their short-term expectations. However, the decisions were made with a long view. Short-view people are understandably disappointed.

Someday Bush will be given due credit for his leadership. Call me an idiot if I’m wrong, but please wait 20 years.

Frank Bryant
Basehor, Kan.

Reasons for tax breaks

Sometimes Lewis Diuguid opens my eyes to a new perspective, but this time I would like Lewis to consider what I see.
In his Jan. 2 commentary (“Hopes of a new year with injustices righted”), he mentioned “grotesque federal deficits largely caused by Bush’s obscene tax cuts for the wealthy.” The budget deficit this year is projected to be 1.2 percent of GDP. This is less than the average for the last 30 years. It doesn’t seem so “grotesque” to me.
I am not wealthy, but I do work for wealthy people, and I understand how they became wealthy. They saved and invested most of the money they earned. It is these investments that build businesses and initiate new ventures that create jobs and increase the wealth of the entire country.
Many of the industrialized countries with whom we compete have lower capital gains taxes than we do, so lowering that tax was a smart thing to do in order to be competitive.
When the government taxes capital it is like eating up your seed corn. You fill your belly today at the expense of next year’s crop.
I don’t call the tax cuts obscene, I call them prudent.
Brian Ritter
Fairway

Pakistan crisis

There’s an elephant in Pakistan that every presidential candidate, except Bill Richardson, seems afraid to acknowledge.
It’s convenient to blame al-Qaida for Benazir Bhutto’s murder, but perhaps a bit disingenuous.
If Pervez Musharraf is as strong a U.S. ally as the Bush administration claims, it’s odd that al-Qaida hasn’t killed him.
The facts are that al-Qaida and the Taliban have safe refuge in Musharraf’s Pakistan, Musharraf’s strongest political opponent has been eliminated, and the election that could remove Musharraf has been delayed.
Musharraf changes Supreme Court justices whenever he wants and is probably still commanding the military.
It’s possible that Musharraf isn’t responsible for Bhutto’s murder. Nevertheless, his integrity and credibility are so damaged that he might as well resign. He will not lead Pakistan to democracy because dictators like him don’t gracefully give up power.
Mike Trier
Unionville, Mo.

The surge

Regarding the troop surge in Iraq, I would like to state some facts to the people who said Iraq was absolutely hopeless earlier this year.
It was the surge that enabled the Sunnis to turn against al-Qaida across the country. It was the surge that took back the major cities from the extremists. It was the surge that rooted out al-Qaida from the staging areas around Baghdad. It was the surge that tamped down the civil war in Baghdad. It was the surge that made the Iraqi people feel secure enough to begin giving us more tips about IEDs and weapon caches (car bombs and roadside bombs in Baghdad are down dramatically). It is the surge that is allowing thousands of people returning to their neighborhoods to open up their businesses, and walk the streets freely.
If our media would share the stories of anyone who has visited Iraq in the last few months, you would be amazed. These remarkable improvements are due only to the sacrifice, bravery and determination of our military. To deny this sacrifice and their achievement because it does not fit a partisan narrative is shameful. God bless our troops, the true angels in our world.
Patty Matthews
Leawood

Waterboarding

While the Bush administration exhibits some difficulty determining whether “waterboarding” constitutes a form of torture, it is worth noting that, over a century ago, Mark Twain lacked any hesitation in this regard.

Commenting on the use of what he referred to as the “water cure” by American soldiers in the Philippines, he observed that “...the torturing of Filipinos by the awful ‘water-cure,’ for instance, to make them confess — what? Truth? Or Lies? How can one know which it is they are telling? For under unendurable pain a man confesses anything that is required of him, true or false, and his evidence is worthless.”

Twain’s official biographer observed that, when he “undertook to give expression to his feelings on this subject ... he boiled so when he touched pen to paper to write of it that it was simply impossible for him to say anything within the bounds of print.”

Martin Zehr
Kansas City

Where is the outrage?

What is going on in this country? We have a president that accounts for everything from lying about WMDs, to leaking the name of a CIA agent, billions of dollars unaccounted for in Iraq. We even have soldiers who were injured in the war and who were then asked by the military to give back some of their signing bonuses. Is this called support?

The latest scandal involves an American woman in Iraq who says she was gang-raped, then imprisoned by her rapists and finally rescued by her congressman and the embassy. The Department of Justice isn’t even investigating this case because the alleged rapists allegedly were American contractors who apparently have immunity from prosecution.

We need The Star to run a continuous story listing and updating us on each scandal, adding to it as new ones become known. We need to be reminded because Americans have poor memories.

What is wrong with us? Where’s the outrage, not just with this president but with our spineless Congress for not doing what they were elected to do. If you haven’t called Congress lately then shame on you.

Shawn Kalmus
Kansas City

Whose privacy?

In light of the furor regarding the loss of privacy by the government intercepting foreign communications, it would seem surprising that now a “left-leaning advocacy group” wants to conduct its own privacy invasion by wanting the Secret Service logs of White House visitors, especially religious leaders (12/18, A-4). But then, another example of the double standard favoring the left is not really surprising, is it?

Can anyone believe there is not a political motive, unfavorable to President Bush, behind this request? And while the targeted visitors may have some public influence, are they not private citizens, with the same rights all of us have? What is the probable cause of wrongdoing that would justify this intrusion?

And forget about the court’s approval, there are lots of liberal judges who could devise some kind of justification for this. And what does the ACLU have to say about this?

Robert Reimers
Gardner

U.S. going wrong direction

The prime aim of the “neo-cons” has long been to expand U.S. power in the oil-rich nations of the Middle East. On Sept. 11, 2001, Saudi and Egyptian terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people with their attacks on the United States. Osama bin Laden, leader behind this travesty, was then in Afghanistan. The U.S. military and CIA soon began trying to find him. Their goal: take him down, reduce the terrorist threat.
But the neo-con goal shifted when bin Laden could not immediately be found. They decided to invade Iraq, the aim being to depose Saddam Hussein, ruthless leader the U.S. had propped up during the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s. The invasion achieved its objective. But since the disastrous results of occupation soon became clear, neo-con strategy changed again. The Iraqi invasion/occupation was now the “War on Terror.” Bin Laden was largely forgotten.
Iraq is but the tip of the iceberg. The United States, once a republic, is fast becoming an oligarchy, with economic and political power in the hands of a few; and in their hands, a military/industrial combine second to none in the world. America, how can a way out of this sad state of affairs be found?
Richard P. Howard
Independence

Tax cuts are good

Niel Johnson (11/15, Letters, “Deficits, paying for war”) calls for a surcharge on the wealthy to pay for the war and reduce the deficit. He implies that tax cuts during wartime are greedy, fiscally irresponsible and even unpatriotic.
Besides evidently thinking that nearly $3 trillion is not enough for the federal government to spend this year, has he not noticed the tidal wave of U.S. Treasury revenues generated by the economic growth from President Bush’s tax cuts on marginal rates, capital gains and dividends, even after an inherited recession and 9/11?
Treasury revenues increased $521 billion during 2005 and 2006. This it the largest two-year increase in U.S. history, even after adjusting for inflation. And revenues are up 6.7 percent this year.
The budget deficit has shrunk from a high of $413 billion in 2004 to $163 billion, or 1.9 percent of GDP, which is about half the 40-year average.
As Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan and now President Bush have proved, tax cuts increase economic growth and thus Treasury revenues. The rich, as a whole, end up paying more in taxes after their taxes are cut.
Mark S. Robertson
Independence

Limited use of torture

Sometimes we are faced with two bad alternatives and must choose the lesser of two evils. Those fighting terrorism face such a situation when they have a prisoner who has information that could save lives but who refuses to reveal it. They must either use torture to get the information or allow innocent people to die.
Inflicting pain on one person is not as bad as allowing people to die, and the prisoner in this situation can avoid that pain by telling what he knows.
Instead of prohibiting torture, we should regulate how and when it can be used. It should only be used on people we are sure have important information and should be restricted to methods which do not inflict permanent damage.
There is a precedent for this type of regulation in the laws governing the use of deadly force by law enforcement officials. Police are authorized to kill in certain situations, but to prevent abuse of this authority there are restrictions on when they can do so. The use of torture should be regulated in the same way.
Clyde Herrin
Bonner Springs

J’accuse!

“J’accuse!” With that phrase, the French writer Emile Zola began a bold accusation of the French military for their obstruction of justice and anti-Semitism in the Dreyfus affair. At the time, Zola was castigated, but eventually his words had their effect, Dreyfus was exonerated, and the corrupt French military was reformed.
I, too, accuse George Bush and Dick Cheney of subverting the U.S. Constitution, a document and an idea they swore to uphold, in the illegal spying against U.S. citizens. I also accuse them of war crimes in the form of torture and renditions. And I call upon our Congress — especially Reps. Emanuel Cleaver and Ike Skelton — to call for the impeachment of the president and vice president. I call on you, Sens. Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill, to hear the evidence and pass a just verdict.
Remember, all of you swore an oath as well to uphold and defend the Constitution. George Bush and Dick Cheney have betrayed their oaths. Please show us that you are people of your word and call them to justice.
Bernard Norcott-Mahany
Kansas City

Oil prices, foreign policy

Oil prices, foreign policy

A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an article proposing that Saddam Hussein was playing the oil market. He’d make bellicose talk or threaten illegal dumping, and petroleum prices would spike.
Things would eventually settle back down, as would the cost per barrel. But in the meantime, it appeared as though Baghdad had done a bunch of very profitable oil trading.
Lately, Bush has been doing a good job of driving up oil prices, too. Say “Iran” “Israel” and “World War III” in the same sentence, and watch those barrels streak for the $100 mark! Of course, running up the national debt to over $9 trillion also helps.
So here is a possible solution. Every time Bush opens his mouth and oil prices go up, immediately impose a tax per barrel equal to that increase. Direct all of those taxes to paying Iraq war costs. Call it the “Terror Premium Surcharge.” Folks in Washington love fancy talk like that.
1) We can start responsibly financing the war rather than dumping the costs on our grandkids.
2) The dollar will strengthen as the world perceives a glimmer of responsibility.
3) Big Oil might tell Bush to shut up about World War III already.
Tom Stroud
Overland Park

The torture debate

Alex McClellan dredges up the old tired hypothetical justification for torture (11/6, Letters) when he asks what you would do if a loved one was in peril from a terrorist. It’s a hypothetical far removed from reality because it presumes that the authorities are intelligent enough to identify exactly who the terrorist is, but not intelligent enough to know how to foil the terrorist’s plans.

A better hypothetical is that the person being interrogated might not actually be a terrorist. After all, terrorists don’t wear a large scarlet T’s on their clothing. And presuming that the authorities currently in power might not be intelligent is certainly far from hypothetical.

So here’s a question for Mr. McClellan. Would you support the use of waterboarding on your son, daughter or spouse if they were falsely accused of being the next Timothy McVeigh?

Steve Simon
Leawood

Thanks you for publishing Alex McLellan’s letter on the perceived positive contribution of torture to our security. I am sure The Star receives a great many such letters supporting the effectiveness of torture, warrantless wiretaps and preventive detention in protecting our freedoms and loved ones. And not many of the writers see any dichotomy in their logic.

I urge you to print more of them lest we be unaware of just how close we always are to that steep slippery slope toward becoming one of the truly “secure” countries such as Burma and North Korea. They have no legal problems with torture there. Nor are they troubled with habeas corpus, Miranda rights, right to legal counsel, search warrants, trial by jury, or a lot of other law enforcement “inefficiencies.”

So many people have fought and died to protect the freedoms that some of us apparently don’t understand.

Michael Meadows
Overland Park

In response to Alex McLellan’s letter: When we torture, we soil ourselves. It is unconscionable to torture. Torture is immoral and illegal. Our children and grandchildren are at far greater risk from the changes that come to a nation that tortures than they are from a kidnapper. And our nation is in far greater danger from those who, like letter writer Alex McLellan, advocate the use of torture than from kidnappers.

“Great as the provocation has been in dealing with foes who habitually resort to treachery, murder and torture against our men, nothing can justify or will be held to justify the use of torture or inhuman conduct of any kind on the part of the American Army” — Teddy Roosevelt, in response to torture being done by our troops in the Philippines.

James Guglielmino
Mission

Waterboarding OK?

Recently John Bellinger, the top legal adviser in the State Department, refused to denounce the technique of waterboarding.

During a debate with one of Britain’s pre-eminent international-law authorities (published Monday in The Guardian), Bellinger, who counsels Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, even refused to rule out the use of waterboarding against American citizens, including members of the military, if it were performed by foreign intelligence services.

I am officially sick to my stomach.

How much longer is this country, and the Democratic Party that controls Congress, going to tolerate this?

Brad Lucht
Kansas City

Truth needed

A thought for the day by Suzette Haden Elgin that appeared recently on the Letters page (11/3) pointed out that “You cannot weave truth on a loom of lies.”

What a pity that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, et al, are not aware of this truth.

Our country would not be in the shape it is in today had they known.

Glenn O. Munger
Overland Park

Attorney general, torture

Here’s a question for those senators who plan to vote against Judge Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as attorney general over the definition of “torture”: Imagine that your spouse or son or daughter has been kidnapped and buried alive, but that one of the kidnappers who knows the whereabouts of your loved one has been captured. Which interrogation techniques would you define as torture and refuse to use to save someone you love from a horrible death?

Alex McLellan
Overland Park

Presidential power

Bush's pick for attorney general has a major flaw: He seems to support unfettered power for the president in time of war. Michael Mukasey supports the proposition that Bush does not have to obey the laws passed by Congress or even follow the Constitution. The rationale is the executive's war powers, but that ignores the provision that only Congress can declare war.

We already see civil liberties issues arise in Bush's "war on terror." Warrantless searches and wiretapping, and the ability to pick up citizens and resident aliens as terror suspects without charges, access to attorneys or habeas corpus are frightening issues.

Much is now made of Mukasey's reluctance to declare waterboarding torture due to fear of prosecution of Bush administration and CIA personnel for war crimes. Waterboarding is internationally recognized as torture. That is small potatoes compared with allowing any president the power to be king.

The terrorists have won if we are willing to stoop to their level of behavior and reduce our civil liberties and reliance on rule of law. Once you let the genie out of the bottle and allow such action, it is hard to rein it in for future presidents. All you conservatives out there, with your fear of Hillary, do you want a Democrat to have that power?

Fred G. Andrews
Prairie Village

Not another war

The decision to invade Iraq "pre-emptively" has proven to be a disastrous blunder militarily and a true human tragedy, insofar as the loss of life and suffering that is taking place there to this very day.

Now these same "leaders" whom we allowed to drag us into this nightmarish mess are beating the drums of war against Iran. If our Congress does not stand up, step forward and put a halt to this foolishness, they will be shirking their most sacred duty on a monumental scale. They will be failing the people of America and the world.

These "leaders" need to be impeached, now, before the harm they have done to America in particular and democracy in general is irreparable. Their actions and the blind eyes they have turned to the results of those actions are unconscionable at the very least, if not downright criminal. God help us and those suffering because of our arrogance.

Royal Scanlon
Kansas City

Tasteless cartoon

Normally I take political cartoons for what they are: usually, a jibe at some politician. The Oliphant cartoon on Sunday’s letters page (10/28) depicting Vice President Dick Cheney using children as targets really crosses the line. It is tasteless and demeans the vice president. I am disappointed that The Star saw fit to publish that cartoon. There is absolutely no humor in it.

David Napoli
Kansas City

We are often upset and disappointed at things The Star chooses to publish, but this Sunday’s Off the Easel cartoon has got to be the most reprehensible piece of garbage you have allowed in print.

We don’t care where your politics lie. The image of Dick Cheney shooting clay pigeons portrayed as children (to comment on the Bush administration’s veto of the preposterous State Children’s Health Insurance Program) was ghastly!

At last, we must assume no one at The Star has any integrity or ethics left. Shame on you.

Dennis and Rebecca Shields
Leawood

Spending priorities

Two AP news stories in The Star last week clearly point out the difference in philosophy between President Bush and most Democrats, and even many Republicans.

President Bush recently asked Congress for $42 billion more next year for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan for a total request of $189 billion for 2008. That will put the war effort for Iraq alone at more than $600 billion since the invasion.

The other story refers to Bush’s promised veto of a bill passed by both the House and Senate to increase health insurance for children of lower income families. The cost is a $35 billion increase to an existing program of $25 billion over five years. It would increase the number of insured children from 6.6 million to 10 million. Many Republicans, including senators and congressmen from Kansas and Missouri, voted for the bill.

To those who continue to fantasize that Bush will be judged well in history: That is not going to happen. And the Americans who sit idly by while these travesties take place are not going to be judged favorably either.

Tom Thornton
Mission Hills

Enough is enough

I was a proponent of impeachment of both Bush and Cheney for the misdirection that they have used in guiding this country. I now realize that this would do nothing more than help further polarize the electorate.

Regardless, it is a genuine pity that the top elected officials have so underserved the American people.

George Bush, as history has shown, is inept, arrogant and more directed by loyalty than effectiveness in the people he appoints to high office. No one can have made as many poor decisions in so many areas wholly by chance.

I have heard the president laud so many losers with “He’s a good man,” etc., that it has finally registered in my brain that he has to say that since there is nothing else good that can be said about these people without outright lying.

In any case, it would be a pleasant change if Democrats and Republicans could put their personal egos aside long enough to realize how badly we’ve been served, mainly by our entry into a war we can’t morally get out of.

It would be refreshing if we, as a united nation, would stand up and tell this egotist that enough is truly enough.

Nathan Kubel
Overland Park

Attorney general resignation

“Public service is honorable and noble,” stated Alberto Gonzales in his short resignation speech Monday. And by so stating, he indicted himself for providing slavish and secret service only to his partisan controllers, without consideration for his oath to the American public.

We now see a small vignette of how demanded loyalty to any political party or sect, to the exclusion of a federal officer’s ethical duty of evenhandedness to all citizens of the country, violates democratic principles and is destructive in the end.

Lloyd Hellman
Leawood

Judge cartoon

Once again, editorial cartoonist Lee Judge succeeds in displaying his sophomoric logic equating Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and Dick Cheney with the “Axis of Evil” (8/19).

Comparing three men with different political viewpoints from Mr. Judge with dictators and murderers is bad enough. That it would be seen in a major newspaper is amazing. Wait, it is The Kansas City Star. Never mind!

Mark S. Damon
Blue Springs

Rove resignation

The Pat Oliphant cartoon (8/20, Off the Easel, Opinion) says volumes. Karl Rove has earned his place in history as the most loathed campaign manager of all times.

In his role as presidential adviser, Rove ran the White House like a political campaign. He never understood what government of the people, by the people, and for the people meant.

Now we the people are left to clean up the mess.

Bernadine Kline
Liberty

Bush administration

Where does one acquire a pair of the rose-colored glasses that allows you to see Bush and his administration as infallible? Apparently many of the writers to this section are wearing them.

Janice Woolery
Kansas City, Kan.

Impeachment warranted

Members of Congress need to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution.
Our democracy is based on the rule of law, and we the people will not tolerate a lawless executive branch or a complacent legislative branch.
We’re experiencing a constitutional crisis, and the American people need someone in Congress to put country before party and politics by demanding that the process for impeaching Bush and Cheney start immediately.
Impeachment is the one tool our Founding Fathers gave America to guarantee our president acts lawfully.
Bush and Cheney have forgotten they are the employees of the American people and not kings, as their actions suggest.
This executive branch has trampled on the Constitution many times over. Impeachment is warranted. The legislative branch has sworn to protect our Constitution. So uphold your oath!
Shawn Kalmus
Kansas City