Letter: Bush rewarded bad performance

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

CBS fired four executives for making a mistake in not properly vetting the accuracy of documents used in a news report; President Bush awarded Paul Bremer, George Tenet and Gen. Tommy Franks the Presidential Medal of Freedom even though they made major mistakes in the lead in and follow up to the Iraq war (dismantling the Iraqi army and police, mistaken intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction, and failure to insist on adequate troops to ensure the security of the country and our troops).

As far as I know no one died because of the CBS mistake but thousands have died in Iraq. We are heading for a quagmire and quite possibly inheriting a country that will be bogged down in civil war for a long time to come.

While CBS deserves criticism for its initial handling of the news report, at least it took steps that should minimize the chance of a similar error in the future. It is hard to believe that rewarding poor performance in our government is going to result in better decisions in the future.

ROGER CHRISTENSEN

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