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Navigating America's Other War

Kudos to TIME for getting it right on Afghanistan [April 20]. Cash-for-work job programs are the best initial solution in a country where Taliban commanders, financed by opium and other illegal activities, are buying the loyalty of poverty-stricken young men. It may come as a surprise to many Americans that fitness and weight-lifting are fast-growing crazes in Kabul and a popular cult figure is California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor's likeness can be found at makeshift gyms throughout the city, which use cinder blocks and old Soviet tank parts for equipment. To many young Afghans, Schwarzenegger embodies the virtues of discipline, goal-setting and accomplishment. Afghans prefer the U.S. to the Taliban, but they have suffered too long from 40% unemployment and a reconstruction that never arrived. Ralph Lopez, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

The truth of what is happening in Afghanistan was laid out during recent gatherings held by the advocacy group Iraq Veterans Against the War, during which vets testified to the brutality that is an everyday part of the occupation. Hamid Karzai's government is just like the puppet regimes the U.S. set up in South Vietnam. And as in Vietnam, civilians are being massacred by U.S. troops. The media will deny it until, like My Lai, it becomes too big to be denied. While I heartily disagree with its policies, even the Taliban would be better for Afghanistan than the U.S.'s self-serving occupation. Hannah Morong, MARBLEHEAD, MASS.

Of all the cover photographs TIME could have used to illustrate the war in Afghanistan, why choose a soldier who is, indefensibly, smoking? During World War II, the cigarette companies, aided by the media, helped create a culture in which soldiers and smoking went hand in hand. I thought we had moved far beyond such an ill-founded association. Richard Rivenes, SUGAR LAND, TEXAS

Debating the Binghamton Tragedy

In response to "The Moment" on the killings in Binghamton, N.Y. [April 20]: I had always thought that the reason for the National Rifle Association's existence was to foster the right to bear arms. Now, after the latest massacres by killers with guns, I finally know the NRA's real agenda: population control. Richard Cionci, CHERRY HILL, N.J.

Of Rantings and Ratings

I am a Glenn Beck fan and believe that our nation is on the road to destruction and that the President and his staff are responsible [April 20]. Beck does a great job of reporting the real truth of the news. Neil Lochhead, GROVER BEACH, CALIF.

You nailed it on the subject of the freak show that is Glenn Beck. But Fox News, the infotainment network, still provides a valuable storehouse of material for Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Melissa Risselada, ST. JOHNS, MICH.