SO MANY HAVE DIED

The cover alone was priceless ["This Is the Cost of War," Dec. 17].

I thought I kept up with what was going on with the war, but was shocked to see how many from our area have died. What a shame.

How about doing a cover story on the soldiers who have committed suicide? Not to be the harbinger of bad news, but because whatever it takes to stop this war needs to be done.

Gary Heffern

Seattle

Of course, I don't want to be slimed and maligned by radical left patriots as a chicken hawk who is insufficiently reverent toward the (American) cost of war ["This Is the Cost of War," Dec. 17].

I'm only asking for the rest of the story.

Where's the cost-of-no-war cover with photos of cut-tongue corpses or buckets of human hamburger excreted from Saddam's plastic shredders?

Cody Kerns

Seattle

At last, an honest look behind all the paint and glitter ["Facing Our Losses," Dec. 17]. Most especially after our military come home to civilian lifeso much for debriefing.

When you multiply each death with the horrendous loss each family and friends and colleagues suffer, the impact widens.

It is no surprise at all that this "simple Texan in a flight suit" and his sidekick, Karl Rove, have bamboozled the American public. But families will soon re-evaluatewhether flag-draped caskets are photographed coming off planes or not. It's like former Governor of Texas Ann Richards has said many times"You can put lipstick and a dress on a pig, but it's still a pig."

That's what we have now in Iraqlet alone the 'forgotten war' in Afghanistan, which is falling back into warlordism.

My question to youif we can bomb the hell out of Baghdad, why can't we find the poppy fields in Afghanistan?

Kay Pealstrom

Tempe, AZ

Boeing isn't Boeing anymore ["Bad News Boeing," Dec. 3]. It is squarely in the military industrial complex, lacking in understanding of the commercial airline business. Unlike the military side, the commercial side is ruled more by private contracts and "get our money from airplane tickets." The military side gets its money from Congress.

Now when we sell an aircraft, military arms deals play a factor. When the military side messes up, immediately the boo-boo is marked "classified." If the commercial airline side messes up, guess whatthe news media is all over us.

What is going on at Boeing is the military is attempting to make us build commercial aircraft like they do military contracts. It doesn't work. The fact is the weapons builders are using the commercial airline as lunch. Military engineers frankly are paid more, and get better advancement in the company than commercial airline engineers. It is deliberate!

There is too much disregard for public safety and lack of understanding of the needs of airlines in third- and fourth- world nations by these military industrial personality types. As long as Boeing is merged with the military industrial complex, I can promise you Boeing will lose trust and respect from the privately owned commercial airlines.

Boeing needs to be busted up (via antitrust legislation) into smaller companies. Hughes can make satellites. McDonnell can make jet fighters. Rocketdyne can make rockets. And, and, and Boeing can make commercial airliners. Message to the Pentagon: Get out of Boeing!

Martin Nix

Member of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace

Seattle

Jim McDermott's comment about the capture of Saddam Hussein was simply speculation [Mossback, "Paranoia Politics" Dec. 17]. He never asserted this was a fact. Such speculation is common among all of us these days due to the absolute secrecy that is the modus operandi of the Bush administration. From stonewalling the 9/11 commission to withholding the facts about Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force, Bush and his cronies have given Americans every reason to question what is really true and what is contrived to shape public opinion.

McDermott was absolutely correct when he said last year that George W. Bush would deceive the public in order to launch his war on Iraq. Where are the WMD that made Iraq an "imminent threat" to our civilization? Where is the evidence that Al Qaeda terrorists were working directly with Saddam Hussein? It's clear that Bush was lying and his lies have now trapped our country into a war that will cost billions of dollars and destroy countless lives.

Why do we continue to overwhelmingly support Jim McDermott? Because he is far and away the best member of Washington's congressional delegation. He is hated by the right wing because he's unafraid to speak the truth and to stand up to them when most politicians cower in their presence.

Jennifer Scott

Seattle

I read your liberal dribble, but at the end your comments seemed rational and interesting [Mossback, "Paranoia Politics" Dec. 17].