Letters: Feb. 26, 2007

Rethinking U.S. Foreign Policy

In the darkest days of the Iraq war, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on a mission to restore order. Can she possibly bring peace to Iraq and mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without admitting the Administration's mistakes? Readers fear it may already be too late to change course

Your cover story on the Bush Administration's efforts to salvage its foreign policy [Feb. 12] provoked musings on what-if scenarios. What if the Bush Administration dealt with the world as it really was, not as the Administration wanted it to be? We would not be in the position we are in today. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a raging civil war, the international goodwill following 9/11 has been wasted, and we have a huge deficit and a military that is being ground down. Even if this Administration could push a replay button, the result would be like the movie Groundhog Day--an endless repeat of the same mistakes.

JACK PLUMMER

Franktown, Colo.

Is it time for Condoleezza Rice to go? Since assuming the post of Secretary of State, she has had very few successes. It would appear that diplomacy is not her strong suit. The fault might lie in the arrogant and uncompromising attitude of her bosses, but her performance has been dismal and disappointing. Much of her time and energy has been diverted to defending the strategies and policies of the Bush Administration. One wonders whether a more independent-thinking Secretary of State would better serve the country.

GERALD SCHWARTZ

Amberley Village, Ohio

Think of the administration's responses to Iraq, Iran, Hurricane Katrina and global warming. Back to reality? When did this team pay its first visit?

BLAKE FOSTER

Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

The opportunity may have passed for Rice to redeem herself by revising U.S. foreign policy. The strategy in Iraq has already reached the point of no return, with irretrievable losses. What can Rice do in the next two years? Her only salvation might be to finalize a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians.

NAKE M. KAMRANY

Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Sending Rice to salvage the ruin that is American foreign policy is much like sending Jack the Ripper to conduct the autopsy of his victims. Rice is complicit in creating the policies that have reduced our standing in the world to that of a bullying and ignorant monolith blinded by its own elevated sense of importance. Like President George W. Bush, Secretary Rice needs to admit numerous mistakes before she can hope to shape the government of other nations.

BILL WAXMAN

Simi Valley, Calif.

Eventually we will have to explain 9/11 to a new generation, just as the greatest generation had to explain Pearl Harbor to my baby-boomer generation. What will we offer as an excuse for the mess we have created? That we envied the greatest generation's World War II glory and felt cheated that Vietnam was all we got? As it has turned out, the Iraq war isn't our World War II, nor is it another Vietnam. It is our World War I: a frivolous, costly, arrogant war that has set off an economic disaster, bred not just one maniac bent on genocide but a million and ended in a standstill that has merely set the stage for the next world war.

PEGGY WILLIAMS