Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 | 8:55 a.m.
On what planet is Lee Gliddon residing? He wrote a letter in your Sept. 11 edition headlined, "Bush foes unfairly critical." He can't be living on Earth, because there are few here who don't recognize that President Bush continues to be a failure of cataclysmic proportion.
The comment about "liberals and their cohorts" resisting drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness reflects the indifference -- or is it ignorance -- of those who simply discount fossil fuels as a finite entity. They would have corporations tear up every pristine acre before they would promote the development of alternative energies or encourage the government to heavily tax gas-guzzling SUVs.
American citizens, as well as some of our allies, were duped into believing that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the U.S. The Europeans weren't persuaded and that is why it is primarily our troops who are dying, as well as innumerable Iraqis, in the name of bringing democratic infrastructure to the Middle East, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.
Perhaps most unfortunate are Gliddon's remarks regarding Kyoto and Cindy Sheehan. Had there been no Cindy Sheehans in 1973, perhaps another 58,000 names would have been inscribed on the Vietnam memorial. Sheehan represents, beyond her grief, a sense of logic and compassion that Bush could never begin to understand -- as demonstrated recently in the hurricane disaster.
Regarding Kyoto, the U.S. has to set the example rather than pick up its marbles and go home. Not signing on to the Kyoto accords, because China and India hadn't, is both mean-spirited and myopic. Global warming has to be addressed internationally. If Americans feel George Bush is doing a "marvelous job," we're all in very serious trouble.
JOHN H. ESPERIAN
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