Letter: President does not speak for everyone

Friday, Sept. 8, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

In Monday's Las Vegas Sun I read a story, "Candidates split over Iraq policy," that showed me that the right wing is still hoping that their old tricks will work. That's right, the tricks that got America into an unpopular war and reduced our global support drastically.

Our secretary of state, Dean Heller, who is the Republican nominee in Nevada's 2nd Congressional District, was quoted as saying, "If we withdraw our troops or set a timetable, it plays into the hands of those that want to harm our country." As comedian Dennis Miller often says, "But then, that's only my opinion, and I can be wrong."

Those who read the news and follow the war on television can see vividly that our presence in Iraq is harming our country every day, in losses of life, spending of tax dollars, and losses of friendship from abroad. Those are real examples of harm, not what the Republicans are using as their only hope for re-election with their president's approval plummeting. The other expression that has been overused is the negative connotation of "cut-and-run."

I believe that any thinking person, when they realize they have made a mistake, will react by cutting their losses, and get out of a bad situation. I would not like my intelligent decisions to be evaluated by a question, "What would George W. Bush do?"

Ken Anderson, Las Vegas