Omaha, NE: The is pretty representative of the people here.

[acmavm]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=610

Have patience on Iraq

This is in response to Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.'s latest slam against President Bush and Iraq ("Bush team fooled self on the war") on the June 22 More Commentary page.

Thank goodness the Greatest Generation had more patience than we do now.

If it behaved the way we do, Japan, Italy and Nazi Germany would be the major world powers.

At the least, we wouldn't be in Iraq and have to listen to this kind of drivel.

Of course, our standard of living would not be anywhere close to what it is now. But there would be one benefit.

We wouldn't have to listen to or read these sniveling comments from columnists like Dionne and from the New York Times editorial writers.
Doug Kaspar, Omaha
******************************
No lost cause

As a 22-year-old college student, I am shocked when I see people writing to the Public Pulse about losing the war in Iraq.

First of all, we are not losing the war.

I am always sad when I hear of American soldiers dying for this great nation. But freedom is not free, and these brave men and women know this.

Second, I feel that reckless comments like those made by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill, about American treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, add even more fuel to the fire for people who do not like the United States and want to destroy it.

I was not alive in the 1960s, but I figure I would have heard rhetoric like this back then and not in 2005.
William G. Lake, Elkhorn, Neb.
***********************************************
The GOP was right

Regarding Robert D. Gilmore's June 22 Pulse letter concerning Republican comments in 1998 about U.S. involvement in Bosnia, there's a big difference between the military peacekeeping "meals on wheels" operation that Bosnia was and Iraq, which is based on the national-security assessments of both the Bush and Clinton administrations, the United Nations, Russia, France, Germany and so forth.

In Bosnia, we were not taking casualties, and there was no enemy to take encouragement from the words of members of Congress, including some senators. In the Bosnia mission, President Bill Clinton deployed us there only after extreme pressure from our European "friends." He promised Congress and the American people we would be there only for a year, which did not happen.

I served in Bosnia for all of 1996, and I can testify that the mission was ill-defined and open-ended, just as the Republicans said.
Vic Slape, Omaha
******************************************
Use correct terms

Referring to the prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay detention center as "detainees" is akin to calling illegal aliens "undocumented workers."

Those prisoners are, in fact, prisoners of war.

Since they were captured neither with recognized uniforms nor as part of a recognized army, they technically don't fall under the provisions of the Geneva Conventions. As with prisoners in previous wars, they are to be kept locked up for the duration.

All things considered, it would seem we're treating these POWs quite well. So let's stop defending these people and calling for the shutdown of Gitmo.

After all, in point of fact, they are out to kill us.
Howard Schanzer Jr., Omaha
**********************************************
On Senate's apology

While John Kretzschmar (June 23 Pulse) and others express their support of a recently passed U.S. Senate resolution that apologizes for the Senate's failure to legislate against lynching, I have to offer a different perspective.

In no way do I mean to condone the crimes that citizens of this nation committed by participating in lynchings and by waiting far too long to do anything about it. But there is no reason the Senate should apologize for crimes it did not commit.

This action sets a horrible precedent. If we apologize for not passing laws against lynchings, are we then obligated to apologize for other crimes our nation has committed, even if we are not in any way responsible for them?

Why have such apologies not been issued for the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Mexican War and the failure to allow women's suffrage?

If the Senate really wants to show the nation what it feels about our history of discrimination, it should work harder today to pass laws that seek to advance those we formerly discriminated against.
Christina Wirth, Papillion

[liberal N proud]

1. The Kool-Aid crowd

[acmejack]

2. Ouch

Are the all letters always that negative? Do you ever see any letters representing your point of view?

I mean all of the letters from the those people take the same confrontational tone everywhere, but there were no "librul" letters at all.

[acmavm]

9. Very rarely does the truth seep through. And this paper is extremely

republican, pro-bush**.

Reading that thing just makes me crazy.

[Webster Green]

3. Very sad

Brainwashed dipshits from the heartland.

[fasttense]

4. That's how our local paper reads too.

I stopped getting it and they called yesterday asking if I wanted the paper again. I asked if they had changed their conservative bias and started reporting the truth. The phone solicitor obviously didn't know. I told them that when they started reporting both sides I would start reading their paper again.

[salin]

5. and suddenly... Indiana feels progressive

yikes!

[depakid]

6. I had always thought Omaha was famous for steak- but

it seems that maybe mutton would be more apropriate....

[rzemanfl]

7. Tell Kaspar to caculate the number of days between Pearl

Harbor and V-E day, then the number of days between 9/11 and now.

Patience my ass.

[Skittles]

8. FOX viewers

terribly misinformed

[deacon2]

10. Today's flavor is grape! If we hurry we'll get front of the line! n/t