Chip off the old block

"Yippee-ei-kai-yai!" More than 20,000 more troops going into the civil war in Iraq. Bush has also threatened Syria and Iran. Bush has moved up new naval forces to bomb them if need be.

It may come as a surprise to some, but what Mr. Bush is doing is simply following through on his daddy's threats to Saddam back in '91. What went out then was, "Withdraw from Kuwait or we bomb you back into the Stone Age!" Now Bush2 has already created a Stone Age in almost every Iraqi city and town. Apparently, he won't rest until he has added Iran to all the other notches on his six-gun. "Shoot 'em up! Yahoo, cowboy!"

Over 3,000 American troops have been killed and over 650,000 Iraqis have also been killed. Now Bush has ordered 20,000 more troops to go into battle. Six and a half more billion dollars are to be spent. Yet according to the latest AP poll, 68 percent of the American public opposes this war.

Mr. Bush continues to spread lies and to fatten the wallets of his Carlyle Group/Halliburton friends. He really won't rest until he gets his way: a global (didn't it used to be called "world"?) war and/or some kind of Arab nuclear response in which at least hundreds of thousands of Americans are killed. "Hey, that's some kind of round-up, podner!"

F. H. Baumgardner, Sebastopol

Fat chance

There is no satisfactory solution to the quagmire in Iraq. Once you have waded into quicksand up to your chest, it's too late. Whatever we do now, stay or leave, there will be mass murder, chaos and destruction. For many years to come, our nation will be the butt of unprecedented contempt and hatred all over the world, and we will all be less safe.

The best thing our leadership could do at this point is step up to the plate and say to the world, "We have been wrong, wrong, wrong. Our policies have led to unspeakable destruction and misery, not worldwide prosperity and democracy. We have made a mockery of the ideals on which our nation was founded. But we are resolved to mend our ways! From now on, instead of wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on destruction and world domination, we will direct those vast resources into the elimination of poverty, hunger and disease all over the world."

Fat chance, huh? Our current leaders would rather sacrifice countless more American and Iraqi lives than face up to their monstrous blunders and eat humble pie. After all, their own lives aren't at stake, only their monumental egotism and greed.

Richard Hoff, Occidental

Backside of the greenback

The thousands of Californians who will be economically devastated by our governor's decision to drastically cut CalWorks may take comfort in knowing that our president has pledged $1.2 billion in economic assistance to the Iraqis.

Helen Tackett, Fullerton

Recruiting recruiters

I would like to suggest a U.S. military cost-saving measure and a way that President Bush can access a trained military resource to man the planned surge of forces into Iraq: Send all United States military recruiters to Iraq and privatize the recruiting services with Manpower or Brown & Root/Halliburton staff. I'm sure after the recruiters return from their tour of duty they will think twice about re-upping their commissions and sending our young people to war!

L. E. Tolbert, Cloverdale

Fore!

Regarding "News: R.I.P." (The Byrne Report, Dec. 27, 2006), after decades of investigative and journalistic pursuits, I have yet to discover a California county more corrupt than Sonoma, a western state more corrupt than California or a federal government more criminally insane than that of the United States.

But who really cares?

There are golf games on Saturday, other televised sports on Sunday. Isn't that what America is all about?

Karl Bosselmann, Forestville

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