Letters to the Editor about Jeff Jacoby's Web exclusive columnPage 7 of 13 -- Dorchester
I was appalled to read Jeff Jacoby's diatribe against Senator Edward Kennedy (May 25), filled with such phrases as, "vile calumny", anti-American poison", etc, to describe the senator's expressions of outrage against prisoner abuse.
Mr Jacoby must surely know that objecting to abuse and an administration's incompetence does not constitute anti-Americanism. As a foreigner, I am outraged at what, despite Donald Rumsfeld's equivocation over the word, amounts to torture. If Senator Kennedy wasn't angry at the events which have tarnished his country's name, I'd be extremely disappointed. It is to his credit that he has spoken so strongly. He does it in defense of his country's ideals. He wants the United States to reclaim its standing in the world. I call that true patriotism. Glen Armstrong Prince Edward Island, Canada
Thank you for the link to Senator Kennedy's remarks, which in my view are simply truthful and thus cause me to look askance at anyone who thinks the truth is a "vile calumny." Fiddlesticks, Sir. Andrea Whitmore Kansas City
I am so sick and tired of reading Jeff Jacoby whine about criticism of the Bush administration’s failed policies. In Jacoby’s world, criticism of Bush is equivalent to anti-Americanism or worse. Now it’s Ted Kennedy’s speech denouncing the recently revealed atrocities at the Abu Ghraib prisons that cause the self-righteous Jacoby to scream “bitter anti-American propaganda.” It is not anti-American to criticize your government. This is true whether you are a columnist for a newspaper, a student, a teacher, a postal worker, a homeless person, or even a United States senator. The day have to pause and worry about whether we are going to get in trouble for voicing our opinions about our government’s policies at home or abroad is the day this nation will really be in serious trouble. But I will guarantee you this: It won’t be long into the first Kerry administration when we will be reading Jeff Jacoby decrying Kerry’s policies with words and innuendoes that will make Senator Kennedy’s criticisms of the Bush administration seem complimentary in comparison. Barry Brodsky Swampscott
I've looked at the pictures from the Abu Ghraib prison. I share Mr. Kennedy's views on the Abu Ghraib crimes and the subsequent public relations disaster. We went into Iraq promising to remove the torturers from power. We succeeded and then we proceed to torture the people ourselves. We even tortured people in the same prison in which they were tortured under Saddam. We were even stupid enough to take pictures of the torture and our stupidity continued when we allowed the pictures to leak out to the press. The damage we've done to the image of America doesn't seem reversible. What a horrible situation. You think that we can't "equate" Saddam's atrocious tortures to the much lesser tortures perpetrated by our American soldiers? While it is true that Saddam did many, many worse things to his own people (many unbelievably horrible things), he was not American. Our soldiers represent the American way to the Iraqi people and they are there as their rescuers. Continued... |
