Letter: President has done a lot of damage

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 | 7:01 a.m.

Exactly what planet is Lee Gliddon living on? His July 15 letter proclaims that Bush "remains right in his course of action in Iraq" and that he "fulfills his office with honor."

Mr. Gliddon apparently has dismissed the realit ies that Bush's own party members have distanced themselves from him, that the right has called for a new course in Iraq and that most of the citizens of the United States and the free world continue to be embarrassed by the indignities he has perpetrated on the Iraqi people, U.S. attorneys general, the justice system and, most recently, his former surgeon general.

The most bizarre claim Mr. Gliddon makes, however, is that Iraq would have been settled "long ago" if Democrats had lined up behind Bush rather than challenge his policies. Has this letter writer forgotten that in Vietnam the "surge" surpassed 500,000 at one point and that as a result 58,000 U.S. troops were killed? And for what?

Perhaps Mr. Gliddon thinks that if the Vietnam anti-war movement had lined up behind Presidents Johnson and Nixon, the Vietnam War would have ended quickly.

Like all those who continue to support the Bush-Cheney mantra of "win in Iraq," Mr. Gliddon is sadly deluded.

John Esperian, Las Vegas