Web Letters: Undebated Challenges

This article, alongside Juan Cole's, demonstrates that a more rational, productive US foreign policy is eminently achievable. Could we have a fundraising drive to get this issue of The Nation delivered to every household in the country?

Unfortunately, the Republican candidates seem engaged in a competition to see who's the bull goose loony on Nurse Ratched's ward, while the Democrats perform their every-four-years ritual of panic about being perceived as too weak on national security. They fail to see how this is counterproductive--that they are perceived as wimps not because their policies are wimpy but because they won't defend them vigorously, i.e., they act like wimps.

Perhaps all is not lost. In the 1860 campaign, Lincoln was careful not to breathe a word about slavery (much to the frustration of his party's grass roots), and in 1932 FDR campaigned on the principle of balancing the budget. Once in office, their intelligence prevailed. That's probably the best we can hope for now, but in the meantime, let's at least make sure the candidates read these articles.

Gregg Gordon

Upper Arlington, OH

As the Iraq War continues to shrink and appears to be winding down to a reasonably successful conclusion, it will have much less impact on the votes in November 2008. In fact, I believe, what with pushes from labor unions and others, that the top issue of 2008 will be illegal immigrants and what to do about them. This is not necessarily only a Republican question but one we will all have to sort out. (Personally, I favor programs for easy and cheap pathways to citizenship.)

John D. Froelich

Upper Darby, PA

I completely agree with the article. I do not see any light at the end of this tunnel, however. The War Party is alive and well and already covering their bases with political donations and a media frenzy that has already convinced 52 percent of the public to bomb Iran over nonexistent nuclear weapons and lies about Iranian weapons in Iraq.

The top three Dems see 2013 as an Iraq exit. All three support more military spending for weapons and a larger ground force. All we are likely to get is a kinder gentler Military Industrial Complex with a Heath Care Complex thrown in for good measure.

It pains me to say it, but this country needs to hit bottom economically, as in 1929, to shake loose the imperialism and warmongering that pervades the political landscape today, thanks to a willingly propagandist mainstream media and a sleepwalking public that knows more about Britney's latest farce or Alex Rodrigues's free agency than they do about their own government.

Michael McKinlay

Hercules, CA