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Leaving His Mark on Japan
Re "Unfinished Business" [July 12], about Japan's elections: Junichiro Koizumi has what it takes to be a great Prime Minister: dedication, sincerity and a good sense of humor. He has been getting lots of criticism from the public, but as the country's leader, he will never leave his job unfinished. He is a man of his word. We all need to wait and see. I believe we can trust Koizumi.
Takehiro Hashimoto
Tokyo

Too Blind to See
Your article about how U.S. truckers and bus drivers are being enlisted to spot terrorists left me disappointed by the level of ignorance that prevails in the U.S. [July 5]. Training truck drivers to be watchful is sensible, but the lack of focus on cultural nuances and sensitivities is a big mistake. The truckers' parochial and prejudiced behavior—like calling Indian Sikhs "Islamics"—reflects this ignorance. Not every Muslim is fanatic, and not every turban-wearing guy is Osama bin Laden's distant cousin. Muslims from different countries embrace very different ideals. I am sure the Department of Homeland Security can do a better job of providing cultural-sensitivity training.
Faisal Siddiqui
Bombay

Abuse by Any Other Name
It amazes me that American journalists are about as shocked over the continuing disclosures of torture as Claude Rains was over the gambling at Humphrey Bogart's joint in Casablanca back in the halcyon days of American idealism [June 21]. It's obvious that what went on in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo was not the result of the actions of a few bad apples of inferior rank but a calculated policy formed in the upper reaches of the Bush Administration. How did we sink so low? Liberals and conservatives alike shudder as they contemplate this betrayal of American values.
Hal Barwood
San Anselmo, U.S.

Words can't begin to express how disgusted and ashamed I am by revelations of prisoner abuse. But it is even more saddening to hear the pathetic excuse that terrorists don't play by the rules, so we don't have to either. Is that the standard we're adopting? The greatest nation in the world is going to follow the behavior of the scum of the earth? We will win the war on terrorism. How we choose to win it will determine whether we are still the greatest nation. We are better than this, America.
Jenny Watson
Shipman, U.S.

An Actor's Genius
The headline of Richard Schickel's Appreciation of Marlon Brando, "Hostage of His Own Genius," was unfair to the actor [July 12]. Schickel quoted Laurence Olivier as saying there is no room for genius in the theater because it causes too much trouble. Your critic noted that Brando's genius was for a long time "too much trouble" for everyone to bear. However, without Brando's genius, cinema today would not be as good as it is. He inspired actors to contribute their own share of genius and ideas about moviemaking to the art. Film lovers wish Brando had made even more movies, but I doubt they would have had the same impact as his great ones. I believe that Sean Penn now holds Brando's legacy. Who knows who the next genius will be?
Jade C. Zaldivar
Davao, the Philippines

Clinton's Legacy
Joe Klein thinks Bill Clinton's book will usher in "a brief return to the noxious '90s, a brouhaha for which not many people are nostalgic" [June 28]. This is a clear example of a writer's getting carried away by his powers of alliteration. Everybody I know is nostalgic for the '90s, but maybe people like us, who come from the L.A. ghetto, don't count. When Bill Clinton dies, the streets of Washington, D.C., will be thronged with weeping, praying mourners. But they won't be like the people who watched Reagan's funeral procession. Many of Clinton's mourners will be people who actually live in Washington, D.C.: black people.
Victoria Brago
Los Angeles

Commemorative Currency
Reagan's face should go on the $1,000 bill [June 21]. That way, the people for whom he and the Republican Party worked so hard can see his face whenever they want—and the rest of us won't have to.
Benjamin Fox
Boston

Faith, God and the Presidency
I am an average middle-class American, and I love that the President openly expresses his faith [June 21]. I am thrilled that he is relying on a universal moral compass, not one of his own making, as some Presidents have done. I know there are millions of people who think the way I do.
Rich Jones
West Chester, U.S.

God and religion are the very foundation of this country. God should never be taken out of civic life. America is suffering enough as it is. God needs to be a part of what we do.
Erika Boda
Cleveland, U.S.

There is no place for religion in the Oval Office, especially in the 21st century. The authors of the U.S. Constitution knew firsthand that religion intertwined with government causes alienation among people, not understanding. As our Founding Fathers intended, however, there will always be room for religious faith in a President's heart.
Annie Overboe
Villa Park, U.S.

The basic problem in the world today is that there is too much religion and not enough common sense.
Richard G. Harms
Issaquah, U.S.

Unfit for the Sacrament?
It is unfortunate that many Catholics believe they can be true to the faith and still be pro-choice [June 21]. It is refreshing that at least some bishops are calling on Catholics to live out their faith the way it should be instead of succumbing to the secular world. Catholics who support abortion are Catholics in name only.
Richard Austin
Denison, U.S.

Target: the Oval Office?
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 [UNITED STATES, July 19] is just the latest and most successful in a long list of political satires. Thirty-three years ago, President Richard M. Nixon was the focus of a similar skewering. As we noted in our review of Millhouse: A White Comedy [Oct. 18, 1971]:

"Emile de Antonio is a specialist at cinematic acupuncture. In such documentary essays as Point of Order (about the Army-McCarthy hearings) ... he needled some popular historic myths and a few political reputations. Now, in Millhouse, De Antonio has employed his usual technique of matching fragments of news film with quick on-camera interviews to produce an unflattering but funny likeness of the 37th President (whose middle name is Milhous, not Millhouse, but let that go). To be sure, De Antonio's jubilant bias sometimes plays him false. Nixon is too often seen stumbling over a foot or a phrase, and sometimes satire descends to the level of easy derision ... But when it works, De Antonio's sense of juxtaposition can be lethal ... [He] is also shrewd enough to know when Nixon is his own worst enemy, and he devotes a long section of Millhouse to the Checkers speech alone. Reciting his list of assets, attempting to sound humble and folksy ... all the while struggling grimly to look natural, Nixon seems to emerge as a kind of bunko artist ... the film is hardly likely to win praise for fighting fair."

Setting the Record Straight
Military Ranking
In "The Making of John Kerry" [July 12], we incorrectly said Kerry returned home from Vietnam "with the rank of captain." When he was the officer in command of a Swift patrol boat in the Mekong Delta, Kerry would have been addressed as captain by his crew, but his official Navy rank in 1969, when he came back from Vietnam, was lieutenant junior grade.