News Photo Points to an Ill-Conceived War

The Aug. 2 front-page photo of a mom stricken with grief at the Arlington National Cemetery burial for her son is both heartbreaking and infuriating. Infuriating because her son was not only bushwhacked by guerrilla forces in Iraq but by a Bush administration whose supreme self-righteousness could not conceive that “liberators” would be seen as an occupying force to be resisted. President Bush figured he had all the answers, but his ignorance has placed those under his command at unnecessary peril. A U.N.-sponsored international force is needed to bail out Bush, whose blind rush to war did not include a relevant and lifesaving peace plan.

Ernest Blakey

Canyon Country

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Re your picture of the grieving mother: No one with a sense of humanity can believe that she and all the many others (both here and in Iraq) who grieve must pay this price for a war of unproven value. It is time we tell this administration it must recognize its folly in believing it has the right to rule the world.

Robert S. Ellison

Arcadia