The Right Man for the Job
Lt. Gen. David Petraeus is a soldier of formidable intelligence, talent and courage, and is an invaluable asset to any army the world over (“Iraq’s Repairman,” July 5). He is right to stress the importance of winning Iraqi “hearts and minds,” but we are finding more and more that those hearts and minds are not easy to understand. How can anybody explain the sympathies of people who exuberantly celebrated the capture of Saddam Hussein but greeted the recent transfer of authority to the Iraqi interim government with silence? From the start nobody seemed to know what was going on in the minds of Iraqis, so we kept adjusting our strategies and making one mistake after another. Your cover asks, “Can This Man Save Iraq?” If he can, it will be, in Petraeus’s own words, “like building an airplane while you’re flying it.” Andy T. Pham Dunnellon, Fla.
Thank you for your cover story about my West Point classmate Gen. Dave Petraeus, an outstanding American soldier and patriot. I was disappointed by your less than fully complimentary story, however. Dave is among the very best our country has in uniform, and he deserves all our encouragement. During the 30 years I spent in the Army, I never heard the term “perfumed prince,” a term that in no way describes Petraeus. He has commanded troops at every level from platoon to combat division. He has survived a fractured pelvis in a parachute jump and a high-velocity bullet through the chest, yet he continues to serve the nation he loves. All Americans should be proud of him and the servicemen and -women like him who continue to protect our country–with their lives, if necessary. Col. James L. Spinelli, U.S. Army (Ret.) Columbia, S.C.
Your article on Lt. Gen. David Petraeus should have more fully examined the tactic of winning hearts and minds. This soft-power strategy didn’t work well in Vietnam, and generates only minimal or temporary results in states that are occupied following liberation. Earning the cooperation and trust of some Iraqis is a bonus, but the primary objective of liberation is to teach nations to fight for liberty and the rule of law. If the Iraqis are determined to succeed in this effort while countering destabilizing forces, the odds for good governance, progress, reconstruction and stability can rise sharply. We should remember that in America’s early days it took 11 years to go from independence to the Constitution and representative government. Christian P. Milord Fullerton, Calif.
Regarding the insurgent groups who are so determined to drive U.S. forces from Iraq: where the heck were they when Saddam was brutalizing the Iraqi people? How is it that Saddam’s tyranny was tolerated, while the U.S. occupation has inspired a rebellion to liberate Iraq? Did Saddam have such a stranglehold on the country that the groups couldn’t operate? Is the U.S. occupation so much more noxious to Iraqis? Are the answers to these questions beyond the grasp of Western minds? Rob McBride Erie, Pa.
More Tragedy in Africa
Thank you for publishing the photographs of the suffering people in the Darfur region of Sudan (“Living and the Dead,” July 5). My child is 17 months old, and I have watched him develop into a healthy little boy. Little did I know that for almost as long as he’s been alive, ethnic cleansing has been going on in Sudan. As a mother, I was moved by the picture of the weeping woman whose 9-month-old baby had died and that of the 2-year-old who weighed barely 12 pounds. After seeing these photographs, I felt compelled to do something, so my husband and I made a donation to Doctors Without Borders. I urge others to do the same. Elizabeth Gross Skokie, Ill.
Your pictures and article on Sudan brought me to tears, anger and then questions. Why are our “Christian” leaders paying Halliburton and not feeding the starving Sudanese people? How is it that Pope John Paul II consecrated a $150 million giant basilica in Cote d’Ivoire while people there starved? Why do we, as followers of Christ, spend time and money persecuting homosexuals when Jesus said not a word about them, and then ignore his command to “feed my sheep”? How did we get the message so wrong? Joan Welk Medina, Wash.
Sudan: genocide, starvation, disease. Why do hated infidels (Christians) rescue those dying in Africa while oil-rich Muslims in the Middle East grow fat and indolent? Why are slavery and genocide practiced by Allah-loving Muslims? Rob Cantin Inglewood, Calif.
Wal-Mart vs. Main Street
As a Vermont resident, I’ve experienced firsthand the controversy surrounding Wal-Mart (“Waging War on Wal-Mart,” July 5). A few years ago, some in the state fought tooth and nail to keep Wal-Mart out. Ridiculous arguments were made about the alleged impact of increased traffic at a nearby hospital center, despite the fact that the hospital itself was to contribute to the problem by increasing its footprint about the same time. And of course, opponents argued, Wal-Mart would destroy small businesses. I am not aware of any businesses that have closed since Wal-Mart moved in a few years ago. And if it hadn’t moved in, we would have no general-merchandise department store in the area, since the others failed because of poor-quality merchandise and services. But small hardware stores, for example, continue to thrive, because the local Wal-Mart can’t match them for personal service. Wal-Mart provides value because without it we would be driving 35 miles to the nearest department store. And you can bet that if Wal-Mart ever ceases to deliver, it will go the same way as all the other department stores that came before it. Economic freedom is freedom to shop, or not to shop, wherever one wants to. Shame on the Wal-Mart opponents for trying to deny me my economic freedom. David Tucker Northfield, Vt.
George Will’s contention that the anti-Wal-Mart (and anti-sprawl) movement is a left-wing rallying point pitting the liberal bad guys against conservative good guys thoroughly misses the mark. When Wal-Mart set its sights on a piece of land in our small town a few years ago, we joined together to resist its advances without regard to political philosophy or party affiliation. Our coalition, which was successful in denying Wal-Mart, was forged from Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives and many to whom none of the above labels would apply. It was not a political agenda that motivated us, but rather a common goal: community preservation. Will scoffs at the notion of community preservation. My guess is that he’s never been to our town to see what is worth preserving. Rick Ohler East Aurora, N.Y.
As a small retailer, I take exception to George Will’s wholesale endorsement of Wal-Mart and his dismissal of small retailers and their supporters. He is furthest off base when he talks about “Main Street shopkeepers” with “hefty profit margins.” While Wal-Mart saw a 16 percent increase in profits this past quarter, most small-business owners I know would be delighted to see even half that. In the Bush economy, even repeating last year’s sales levels would be fine with me. The CEO of Wal-Mart took home $1.4 million plus a bonus of millions more in 2003. After five years in business and untold hours of worry about big chains’ underselling me, I took home $30,000. This year, sales are up but profit margins are down, and I’ve taken in only $10,000 so far. I offer my customers a variety and quality of selection that no big chain could ever offer–it just takes too many man-hours to be that selective and creative about inventory. It can never be, as Will puts it, “efficient.” My customers tell me they love my store, and they don’t mind paying a little more so I can keep my doors open. Why label, with a sneer, those who support small American businesses that dare to offer an alternative to mass merchandisers as “progressive”? Blaise Kielar Durham, N.C.
George Will misses the point of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s naming Vermont one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places. Our goal is to remind Vermonters that they have the right to decide what their communities are going to be. Although Vermont already has four Wal-Marts, three of them are relatively small and located in or near town centers. But now the company plans to saturate the state with seven huge new stores in outlying locations. As communities across the country have learned, these superstores can drain the economic lifeblood out of downtowns. When locally owned Main Street businesses go under, the community loses something important–including the sales revenues that fly off to a distant corporate headquarters instead of remaining in the local economy. Will is dead wrong when he refers to Main Street shopkeepers with hefty profit margins. In fact, most of them are struggling, unable to compete with the huge buying power and marketing budgets of the retail giants. And when he says, “Talk about protecting ‘a sense of community’ often is avarice masquerading as altruism,” Will shows a sad lack of understanding of the long-term effects of sprawl on the quality of life in America today. Richard Moe, President National Trust for Historic Preservation Washington, D.C.
Correction
In “One Man’s Flight of Fancy” (July 5), we wrote that MGM’s film library includes such classics as “The Wizard of Oz.” In fact, Time Warner has owned the movie since its 1996 purchase of Turner Broadcasting, which itself had obtained the movie in an earlier acquisition of all of MGM’s films made before 1986. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.
