Letters: Dec. 13, 2004

Street Fight in Iraq

"The battle for Fallujah has reduced another city to rubble and increased the hatred of the U.S. among ordinary Iraqis."

JEAN WALTRIP

Rocky Mount, Va.

Your report on the full-scale assault to take back Fallujah from the insurgents [Nov. 22] reminds me of the Vietnam-era axiom: "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." Although reconstruction is supposed to begin as soon as we pacify the Fallujah cauldron, attempts at such rebuilding in the rest of Iraq have shown that it is impossible to begin the work and spend the budgeted money because of the lack of security for work crews. What contractor on earth would want to undertake such risks to work in Fallujah, the most dangerous place in Iraq?

DAVE WATTERS

Wyoming, Ohio

The battle for Fallujah has reduced another city to rubble and increased the hatred of the U.S. among ordinary Iraqis. I see no way out of this mess, short of leaving the country to its own devices. Then, of course, another dictator will take over, or a civil war will begin. The U.S. has no legitimate role in the Middle East. If we need Iraq's oil, we can bid for it on the world market. Our interference in the region has been counterproductive. There will be no scattering of rose petals for Americans, but there will be many more deaths of our troops and of Iraqis too. Show me the moral value in that.

JEAN WALTRIP

Rocky Mount, Va.

Why didn't you devote more reporting to the terrible suffering of the city's residents, in particular women and children? Perhaps you are afraid people will criticize the brutality of the American troops.

ANN SALVADORI

London

TIME's cover showed a Marine corporal, face tense and most likely screaming some command to his subordinates while fighting insurgents in Iraq. I feel terrible about what's happening in the war, but I am losing interest in the day-to-day combat. Have the media lulled me into acceptance of casualties?

JUMPER LAFAYETTE

Crownsville, Md.

Time and time again I am amazed by the quality of reporting by Australian journalist Michael Ware, who has tirelessly covered the war on terrorism for TIME in very difficult, trying and dangerous circumstances. We must pay tribute to remarkable people like Ware who continually provide us with gritty, quality journalism directly from the front lines.

NICK SMART

Gold Coast, Australia

The Legacy of Arafat

Whatever view one takes of the long struggle between Palestinians and Israelis, a kernel of truth concerning that conflict can be glimpsed from two details of Yasser Arafat's illness and death [Nov. 22]. His people had to take him to another country for decent medical care, and they had to ask Israel, his lifelong enemy, for permission to return his body for burial in Ramallah in the West Bank. Can you imagine an Israeli Prime Minister being put in the same position? Until the fundamental economic and political inequalities that lie behind such contrasts are corrected, there is little hope for peace in that blood-smeared region.

WILLIAM P. REICH

Evanston, Ill.