April 26, 2004

Iraqi blogger might be in for a big letdown

On April 12, an Iraqi civilian, Alaa, seemingly trying to temper his frustration concerning insurgency violence, wrote in his Web log (messo potamian.blogspot.com): "Once everybody understands that the U.S. will not be shaken, and they are watching the polls anxiously . . . you will start seeing results. The more the U.S. public rallies behind the president, the more the enemy is going to be disillusioned. Conversely, the best service you can give the terrorists is to give them the impression that they are succeeding in swaying the Western public; this will encourage them to escalate their actions."

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Recently, Sen. Ted Kennedy remarked that "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam." The next day anti-coalition militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr exclaimed, "Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."

Some in the media inaccurately depict the latest acts of aggression against coalition forces and private contractors as a "popular" uprising. Newspapers and TV reports are rife with pictures of angry militiamen vying for dramatic photo ops with eager foreign (journalists), while showing little interest in the enormous amount of reconstructive progress that has been made throughout Iraq.

Demonstrators in San Francisco carry placards with messages such as "War against 'America' is the real war on terror" or "Solidarity with the insurgents of Fallujah."

I wish we could tell this hopeful Iraqi that we're all doing everything possible to help him to secure his freedom - but I'd be lying.

Larry Fenton
Aurora

Iraq conflict nothing like World War II

I'm one of those that letter writer Tim Enger says questions the war in Iraq ("Echoes of 1941 resound in conflict in Iraq," April 12). First of all, we are not in a conflict that is anything like World War II.

Germany and Japan were not third-rate countries that had an ineffective military. Their goal at that time was to conquer the world, and many people - including myself - think they could have accomplished it. If you will recall, we had a world united to defeat the Axis in World War II.

We all know that Iraq's dictator and henchmen were very bad people. But how many other countries have terrible dictators and treat there people as bad? How many counties should we invade? I would also remind Enger that there have been no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq to hurt anyone in the U.S. To this date the inspectors in Iraq have found no evidence of programs to develop any weapons of mass destruction. Wasn't this the reason we went to war in the first place?

Since we are taking care of Iraq, why not take care of Iran? We know that Syria is contributing terrorists to the fight in Iraq. Why not attack Syria?

Let's get in deeper and see if we can continue to alienate the rest of the world and risk more of our soldier's lives. So far Bush has done a great job of that.

Don Buckler
Franktown

Whose fault is it, really, that Paul Childs died?

Who is at fault in the death of Paul Childs? Is it officer James Turney? Is it the Denver Police Department? Or is it the family that called the police, frantically yelling into the phone that Childs was chasing his mother around the house with a butcher knife? (Oh, had you all forgotten that call?)

Still, a 15-year-old mentally disabled child is dead. Yes, it is sad. But even sadder is watching the Childs family use this as an opportunity to become rich. It is sad watching a police officer being used as a scapegoat. Saddest of all is knowing that a police officer - or you or a loved one - might lose his or her life because the officer hesitated to pull his gun for fear that using it might end his career.

How is this for an epitaph: "He died so his attacker could live and the police department wouldn't be sued"?

Martha Reed
Arvada

Don't support Turney

The blind support the Denver Police Department shows to officer James Turney is quite distressing.

In my opinion, there should not be any officer employed in Denver (or anywhere else) who cannot take a knife away from a skinny little 15-year-old kid. It doesn't matter how big the knife is, or what the circumstances are.

Officer Turney should be ashamed! His fellow officers should hold him up to ridicule and scorn rather than holding a public rally to support him.

Wayne H. Medlin
Westminster

Journalism at its elitest

The News editorial of April 19, "French diplomacy at its lowest," was "journalism at its elitest." Of course there's no French race . . . that's not what Ambassador Levitte was implying. If the News editorial staff could lower its nose for just one second, perhaps it could comprehend the subtle nuance he's proposing (i.e., U.S. nationalism at its worst). But by publishing such nonsense, the News only reinforces the typical stereotype of the boisterous, chest-thumping American snob.

J. Christine Goodwin
Aurora

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