Letters

The

"I admire the way the President stands up for what he believes in and makes tough decisions rather than trying to be Mr. Popular."

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JOSEPH ZOLTEK Glenside, Pa.

"INSIDE THE MIND OF GEORGE W. BUSH" [Sept. 6] reaffirmed my admiration for this man. I love that the President is stubborn enough to stick to his guns when it comes to the safety of our country. He's my hero.

TERRI BRADSHAW Grand Prairie, Texas

BUSH'S MAIN PROBLEM IS THAT HE FAILS to think ahead. He invaded Iraq but didn't plan for the aftermath. He offended allies whose help we now need. He started a war without thinking how it would destabilize the world. He cut corners, bypassing the U.N. Being tough cannot make up for a lack of judgment.

ILYA SHLYAKHTER Cambridge, Mass.

BUSH WAS THRUST INTO THE HORROR of 9/11, a situation that any President, Republican or Democrat, would have struggled with. It's very easy three years later to criticize the way Bush handled foreign affairs, but at the time we were a nation that was shocked and scared. Bush is a President in a no-win situation. No matter what he does, people will criticize and see fit to condemn him. He may not be the perfect President. He has made mistakes. But no one else can truthfully say he could have done better than Bush did.

MERRIDITH FREDIANI Milwaukee, Wis.

BUSH DESCRIBES HIMSELF ABOVE ALL AS a man who can make decisions. I doubt that anyone would argue with that. The President's decisions have, however, adhered to neoconservative political principles. The notion that a single political philosophy best serves the needs of a nation is simplistic, arrogant and dangerous. Effective leadership requires the ability to distribute dissatisfaction across all parties. Bush's brand of leadership lacks both discernment and the courage to confront his conservative power base.

ALFRED B. BONDS Nashville, Tenn.

AFTER 9/11 THE U.S. WAS IN A POSITION IN which a decision had to be made. Bush acted as any effective Commander in Chief would have. We Americans have been blessed with security, freedom and our way of life because soldiers and civilians have sacrificed their lives for just causes. In today's global society, to have acted any way other than how we did after the events of 9/11 would have been dangerously naive.

MICHAEL POPPEN Sioux Falls, S.D.

BUSH OUGHT TO REMEMBER THE WORDS of H.L. Mencken: "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong." All of Bush's simple solutions to our country's problems have been, invariably, wrong. I do not want as President an amiable fellow who does not accept that politics is about compromise. I would rather have an effective President whom I despise as a person than a wrongheaded one who is a good fishing buddy.

DAVID P. VERNON Tucson, Ariz.

IN HIS INTERVIEW WITH TIME, BUSH called the U.S. invasion of Iraq a "catastrophic success," which he defined as "being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day." For those who are unfamiliar with Orwellian Newspeak or doublespeak, catastrophic success translates as failure in plain English.

R. CURTIS HAMILTON Scio Township, Mich.

Debating His Chances

IN HIS VIEWPOINT "THE CASE FOR BUSH" [Sept. 6], Charles Krauthammer argued that after the President's success in Afghanistan and a continued hunt for al-Qaeda, he could have sat back for two years and "coasted to re-election." But what about all those other issues that the Administration would have been forced to address if it hadn't been for the Iraq war? By whipping voters into a prolonged state of fear and anxiety, the President has been able to so effectively mask his abysmal performance on big problems like the economy that apparently even such savvy political essayists as Krauthammer overlook them.