Letter of the Day

Recently, Donald Rumsfeld accused those like me of appeasing fascists for calling upon the administration to withdraw from Iraq. He accused us of being morally and intellectually confused.

Rumsfeld is intellectually confused. He believes the mission in Iraq is still war.

The repressive regime of Saddam Hussein is gone; the war is over. Clearly, the mission is now peace- keeping, reconstruction and nation-building. Peace in such a complex region requires vision, wisdom, nuanced diplomacy and restraint.

Rumsfeld is morally confused. He believes it necessary to ignore U.S. and international law if doing so allows us to obtain information that prevents a terrorist attack.

Even if torture and abusive tactics led to valuable intelligence, it diminishes us as a people and as a nation.

The "ends justifies the means" is the rationale used by every despot who ever bloodied the soil of this planet.

Our role in the world should be to bear the torch of liberty and preach the gospel of human rights.

- Rick Whitten, Madrid.

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