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Person of the Year
I appreciate your choice of president Bush as Person of the Year for 2004 [Dec. 27-Jan. 3]. I would add the following reason to those you stated: his farsighted vision. Since 9/11, Bush has been the only world leader with a clear plan for how to face, combat and eventually defeat terrorism. His critics have so far only demonized him but never offered any serious alternative strategies for winning or even waging the war on terrorism. Bush has a great chance in his second term to continue to implement his plans for a final victory in that war. In 10 to 15 years, history will regard him as the person who made the first fundamental contribution to the defeat of terrorism.
Fabrizio Zanello
Genoa, Italy

The Person Of The Year should be someone who has been instrumental in shaping events. Though President Bush sees himself as the leader of the democratic world and the fight against terrorists, his decisions since 9/11 have been reactive rather than proactive. It pains me greatly, therefore, to nominate two people who have really been calling the shots: Osama bin Laden and insurgent leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi. Both seem to understand that power comes through the hearts and minds of the people.
Stanley J. Courtney
Shrewsbury, England

Bush is not "reframing reality to match his design," as you claimed. He is facing the reality of the worldwide threat from militant Islam, and he and the coalition forces are taking steps to counter it. He is not, as you said, "gambling his fortunes—and America's—on his faith in the power of leadership." He is demonstrating leadership in a world of craven politicians and fearful people. We Africans know something of terrorist oppression from personal experience and have not been taken in by the propaganda of the radical Islamists. Viva the U.S.!
Tapumaneyi Jongwe
Johannesburg

I presume that you chose Bush more for his negative achievements—of which there are many—than for anything constructive. In fact, I can't think of anything positive he has done, except to deceive the American people into voting him into a second term, if that can be regarded as positive. No one likes to think that the population of the U.S. is completely stupid, but if voters supported Bush and his cronies, fully convinced they were the right choice, then Americans got what they deserve. TIME should have selected the American people as Fools of the Year. Pity the rest of the world. But we don't count, do we?
Susan Hafner
Balsthal, Switzerland

Congratulations on your selection of President Bush, a man who has had a huge impact on international affairs. While the President has the support of a majority of American voters, I keep asking myself, What will happen when the party is over? Our world is integrating and becoming more global at a rapid pace. Bush, instead of leading the charge, has erected barriers between the U.S. and the rest of the world by unilaterally implementing his policies on Iraq and other global issues, with alarming consequences. At some future time, Americans will wake up to a cold, even hostile world, and no amount of spin from a political strategist like Karl Rove will be able to explain it away.
Colin Wakefield
Johannesburg

My reaction to your choice of president Bush as Person of the Year went from revulsion to amazement to the realization that there was no alternative. This man has shaped the world for four years and—for better or worse—will be doing so for another four, but who knows to what end? We can only remain on edge to discover, as his second term unfolds, what surprises Bush has in store for us. It is quite frightening.
Michael Madison
Opio, France

How Bush could be named person of the Year is beyond me. The man is an intellectual midget. His presidency has been marked by the full-scale manipulation of reality at all levels. The person responsible for that is political operative Rove, not Bush, who is a bumbling spokesman. To fill the gap left by the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the Administration created a new enemy, terrorism. But achieving that goal has only strengthened U.S. adversaries, especially al-Qaeda. Eventually, reality will come back with a vengeance, but it is the successors to the Bush Administration who will have to deal with it.
Peter Van Roy
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

All too often, time chooses the U.S. President as Person of the Year. Bush won re-election by a very slim margin. No great performance there. And the President is by no means a revolutionary. He is responsible for invading a country under false pretenses, clamping down on personal freedoms at home, conducting a reckless fiscal policy and letting the dollar slide. It's an insult to the word revolutionary to apply it to Bush.
Frank M. Wiesebron
Paris

Bush's winning a second term as President makes him deserving of being Person of the Year. He has remained strong in adversity. I hope that during the next four years he will take the necessary steps to resolve the chaotic situation in Iraq.
Amy Cherian
Ayroor, India

U.S. Feedback
At first I was appalled by your choice for Person of the Year [Dec. 27-Jan. 3]. But then I remembered your criterion: the person who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill. I can't think of anyone in my lifetime who has affected more people's lives for ill than George W. Bush.
Glenn Boylan
Alpharetta, Georgia, U.S.

Bush's determination and steadfast personality are what make this President special. There is no pretense or sophistication about him. He is authentic.
Juana Moreau
Marrero, Louisiana, U.S.

President Bush is undoubtedly the newsmaker of the year. Is he, however, a "revolutionary"? In your article, the Bush who no longer needs to win an election came across as a pugnacious thug, his swaggering, loves-to-be-hated style more brash than visionary. TIME said he was a "punk at heart" and recalled his college days of wearing cowboy boots and a bomber jacket on campus during Vietnam War protests. Was he an outsider then, as you suggest, or was he then—and is he now—the ultimate insider, a protected son of wealth and power who has little fear of what frightens ordinary people? You quoted him as saying, "I've got all the power I need." Yes, God help us all, he does.
Jan Hamilton Powell
Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.

I wholeheartedly agree with TIME's choice of Bush. Dubya's footprints have been large; it is a pity they have mostly been going backward. The President is no revolutionary but a reactionary pushing against the progressive tide. Americans feel poorer, less safe and less free than four years ago. Despite a narrow election victory in threatening times, Bush tells himself he has a mandate to shake things up. Look out, America. Look out, world!
Jeff Bennetzen
Bogart, Georgia, U.S.

Bush has made some hard choices during his four years, some of the toughest a President has had to make. He sticks to his guns and does not retreat. Twenty or 30 years from now, he will be described as a man of vision and courage. He stands up for what he believes is right and does not ask the world for its opinion.
Mark King
Lyons, Nebraska, U.S.

You chose President Bush for "sticking to his guns." The problem is, he isn't the one manning those guns. It's the unfortunate troops in Iraq, many of them reservists and National Guard members, who are fighting and dying in Bush's ill-conceived war.
David Sheffield
Los Angeles

Bush is a proven leader and a god-fearing man. He goes against the norm, and that ticks off everyone. I'm proud to have him as our President.
Mike Dampier
Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S.

The president has given back to Americans something we have longed for and needed for a long time: hope for a moral and strong U.S.
Nancy Jackson
Blossom, Texas, U.S.

I find your substantiation for choosing Bush as Person of the Year quite appalling. Although "sticking to his guns" and "reshaping the rules of politics" are both attributes of our President, they are precisely the traits that are taking our great democracy down a scary path. Your choice of Bush reinforces the notion that being a strong leader is more important than being a wise one.
Helen Wiant
Cupertino, California, U.S.

Many of the gravest errors in human history were made by leaders who stuck to their guns. We don't need guns. We need compassion and moral strength.
Jon Sherman
Chicago

The Rainbow Cabinet
Columnist Joe Klein's "The Benetton-Ad Presidency" discussed the diversity of President Bush's choices for Cabinet posts [Dec. 27-Jan. 3]. But diversity is not merely a difference of color or ethnicity but also a divergence of perspective, opinion and experience. If the President is really interested in diversity, he will do well to name a Cabinet that sees things differently, challenges convention and perhaps even dares to disagree, instead of simply achieving a comfort level that feels good. That's true diversity.
Terrence D. Samuel Jr.
Gates, Oregon, U.S.

Bush's cabinet looks like a rainbow and appears to be beyond reproach. But that's the trick. To judge this Administration, you must look deeper into the policies being enacted and their impact on the various segments of our society. You can't judge a book by its cover.
Olivia Koppell
New York City

Pakistan Responds
Your report "Hiding In Plain Sight" [Nov. 29] claimed Pakistani authorities were ignoring Taliban fugitives who have taken refuge in our southern city of Quetta. No Taliban member is welcome in Pakistan. Our country is a key, vital partner of the U.S. in the war on terrorism. President Pervez Musharraf has ordered more than 70,000 troops to police Pakistan's southwestern border with Afghanistan. The President has repeatedly made it clear that he will spare no effort to rid Pakistan of all inimical foreign elements.
Talat Waseem, Press Counselor
Embassy of Pakistan to the U.S.
Washington

Is God in Our Genes?
Your story [Nov. 29] asks, "did humans create religion from cues sent from above, or did evolution instill in us a sense of the divine so that we would gather into the communities essential to keeping the species going?" As an atheist turned agnostic turned theist turned Christian, I find myself embracing a theory that both sides find controversial: intelligent design. We are created with the need for God by God.
Amy E. Mitchell
Eaton, Ohio, U.S.

Poor Intelligence
"In Your Face At The CIA" [Nov. 29] reported on the resignation of some of the best officials at the Central Intelligence Agency. The loss of those people will only add to the CIA's ineffectiveness. Though the agency has been quite successful in collecting intelligence data from different parts of the world, it has failed to discover and foil the plans of many criminals and terrorists. Certainly, 9/11 is an example of an attack the CIA did not prevent. In fact, the agency has often been misled.
Syedfahad Akhtar
Karachi