Re: Tom Parker's July 25 commentary, "Lebanon evacuation bungled like Katrina":
I have to strongly disagree with Parker that our government bungled its assistance to U.S. citizens caught in the war zone there. No one except the terrorist Hezbollah organization knew that a fight was going to break out, and our people on the ground there probably reacted as quickly as possible with the resources available to them. It’s easy to criticize from thousands of miles away.
I don't necessarily believe that it is our government's responsibility to drop everything and come to the rescue of everyone who enters a potential trouble zone that the Middle East obviously is and that State Department warnings caution against. The people who go there know the dangers better than anyone.
Moreover, I object to the tone of Parker's writings in this case. He sounds like someone with an ax to grind against our government, his former employer, from whom he no doubt draws a fat pension check from every month.
Perhaps if he and his cohorts at the FBI had been more diligent in the months before Sept. 11, instead of covering their tails in paperwork, a lot of this bloodshed could have been avoided.
— David N. Cook, Oxnard
or maybe George Bush is an idiot, one of the two.
or maybe George Bush is an idiot, one of the two.