I read the cover story about Fred Thompson (“Grin and Bear It,” Sept. 10) and then I read it again looking for what I could not find. Why is this man running for president of the United States? He apparently does not have any burning issues that take him to the race, or major problems that he feels uniquely qualified to address, or a particular constituency that he sees as inadequately represented by candidates in the two major parties. No, Thompson wants to run because—well, it just looks like something to do! And he brings precious little to his candidacy: a less-than-distinguished term as senator; little patience with the hard work of actually enacting policy, and a reputation of being thrust out front by folks like Howard Baker who like to run things from behind the scenes. And, surprise! He’s immediately running among the top three in the Republican Party. I’m betting that voters have had enough of candidates who’d like to be president because they don’t seem to have anything better to do or have sponsors like Baker and Newt Gingrich who cannot be elected themselves but would like nothing better than a president they can manipulate. Robert J. Doolittle Tulsa, Okla.
Readers might conclude that Sen. Fred Thompson is lazy, ignorant and unworthy of the highest elected office in the land. In reality, Thompson has had an extremely distinguished career in law, government and the business world. I think the American public is anxious to evaluate the new conservative candidate in the presidential race based on his credentials. We may see just how wise Thompson may have been to enter the race later than his opponents. Richard Kellogg Alfred, N.Y.
As a Tennessee resident i never got to know Fred Thompson, and the chances are you never will, either. At least not if you want some service from him. I moved from Illinois, where we had highly responsive legislators like Sen. Paul Simon and Congressman Melvin Price. If you contacted them, you would quickly get an answer. Not Thompson. Many of us tried often over the years to get help on various issues, but we just never got a response. I suppose Thompson was too busy for constituents. Is he headed for the White House? I hope not. A president needs to be responsive to the people. But if he promises that if elected he will bring our troops home from Iraq immediately, some of us might change our minds. Don Hastings Sr. Melbourne Beach, Fla.
Sometimes we forget that those who have earned the title of “saint” were first and foremost lowly humans just like us (“The Dogmatic Doubter,” Sept. 10). They woke up every morning to face another day; they had hurts, heartaches and longings as we do. Perhaps Mother Teresa, being only human, suffered from clinical depression, which we know is accompanied by feelings of hellish hopelessness. After all, her years in Calcutta were spent surrounded by squalor, disease, pain and death. To be depressed would not be shocking. The miracle is that for all of those years, despite the emptiness she felt alone with her thoughts in the night, she did get up to face another day of the same, putting aside her sadness to care for her beloved “poorest of the poor.” May her soul now in heaven feel the joy and comfort that eluded her on this Earth. What a beautiful example she has given us of enduring and caring even when we feel our hearts have nothing left to give. Sharon Klees Hyattsville, Md.
Mother Teresa’s doubts were an intrinsic part of the mission she gave to her sisters: focus on the care of the dying, not proselytizing them. Many Christians try to get rid of their doubts by projecting them onto others—as though the more people they are able to convert, the more their own inner doubts will disappear. Precisely because she refused to do this, Mother Teresa was forced to let the seemingly incompatible opposites of faith and doubt duke it out within her soul. Author Christopher Hitchens, the nun’s leading critic, raises a lot of doubts about the works of love that were the offspring of such a rocky marriage. But so does Mother Teresa; through her diaries, one might say she has beaten him to the punch. Joel Brence Aspen, Colo.
Christopher Hitchens seems to take a perverse delight in the anguish of Mother Teresa and sees it as a validation of his false tautology “the absence of evidence is the evidence of absence.” While the analysis of her struggle and critique of some of her beliefs are fair game, her service to the poor and her inspiration to be more charitable is indisputable. My own belief is that whatever her faith or doubts, her good deeds are well rewarded in the mystery of whatever’s next. David E. Pasinski Fayetteville, N.Y.
I’m a Vietnam vet who reached the same rank as Cpl. Mark Finelli after I received a college deferment for four years and was drafted a year later (“Why We Need a Draft,” Sept. 10). His opinion piece in favor of reinstituting the draft is the best I’ve read about this important debate. In addition to dealing with such problems as our too-small military being spread too thin, too-short breaks between tours and inappropriate use of the National Guard, a draft of diverse citizens would enrich and challenge the military as well as ensure that our future leaders have firsthand knowledge of the culture, activities, strengths and weaknesses of this critical sector of society, something that is now sorely lacking among those under the age of 50. Like it or not, we are in a war with radical Islam that will last a very long time. Except for folks related to members of the military, our citizens aren’t personally invested in this war, something that must occur if we are to fight it effectively. Drawing troops from both low and high economic strata of society and from politically influential and noninfluential families will lead to developing just such an investment. To me, the issue of bringing back the draft is a no-brainer:it should be done. Unfortunately, the odds approach certainty that Congress will lack the political guts to do so. Charles Biernbaum Charleston, S.C.
Cpl. Mark Finelli couldn’t be more right, but for the wrong reason. We need a draft to keep politicians intellectually honest when they consider the use of military force. If the war in Iraq depended on a draft, our troops would have been withdrawn long ago, or, even better, would never have gone there in the first place. The American public sees the failure in the decision to invade Iraq, the failure in postwar planning and the failure to recognize those failures by keeping our troops in Iraq. It is a shame that our leaders don’t have the vision and understanding of the American public. There is collective wisdom in the voice of the American public. Our leaders would be wise to listen to that voice. They will be forced to listen in November 2008. Richard Hopgood Nicholasville, Ky.
Everyone’s heard the phrase “Freedom isn’t free,” but the phrase is not true at all right now in this country. As a veteran of the Air Force and the spouse of an active-duty Air Force captain, I find that freedom is free for about 99 percent of Americans. We haven’t had a tax increase to pay for this money pit of a war and we have only a small segment of society fighting and dying in it. Mark Finelli was right-on with his assessment of the situation and the reasons we need a draft so badly. The only way to avoid another Iraq War, a war rushed into and based on lies, is to create a law that puts into effect an immediate tax increase across the board and to reinstate the draft any time our forces are mobilized for a contingency. Maybe an automatic “payment” by all citizens will ensure a careful use of our military the next time they’re called on to fight for our freedom. Heidi Willis Columbia, S.C.
A universal draft would do much more than ensuring our troops in Iraq have adequate equipment. It would lead to an abrupt end to the war. Bobby Kennedy was correct when he advocated an end to student deferments as the best route to ending the war in Vietnam. Once the sons and daughters of the upper and middle classes are placed in harm’s way, the true worth of this war will be weighed and found lacking. Gregory Lyle Medina, Wash.
In “Baghdad’s New Owners” (Sept. 10), the photograph of a young survivor among the rubble of the market bombing in the Amel district of Baghdad speaks volumes. The girl’s face appears swollen, crisscrossed by black sutures from her forehead to chin, a metaphor for a scarred city, a stolen childhood, a casualty of war. The new Shiite dominion over the once mixed capital is also a painful reminder of the 1,400-year battle for Islamic supremacy between Shiites and Sunnis and is mapped out on this innocent victim’s face, as one eye is shut and bandaged but the other sees us. Do we see her? Alan Braverman Brooklyn, N.Y.
The real scandal behind the Larry Craig incident (“Talk to the Hand,” Sept. 10) is that the citizens of Minnesota are paying tax money for a police undercover operation to arrest consenting adult men who use subtle clues to arrange for a hookup. It’s fine to stop people from having sex in public that offends others, but to stop them from arranging a date is ridiculous. A few generations ago, the fact that the police officer was living with a woman to whom he was not married would have been the scandal. Beatrice Phear West Tisbury, Mass.
Regarding your article on Sen. Larry Craig’s disorderly-conduct arrest, I am struck by the degree of denial he seems to be having. Whether he is gay or not, whether he was soliciting sex or not, his behavior in that Minneapolis airport bathroom (staring into a stall obviously occupied by someone and waving his hand under the divider three times) was at the very least creepy and disturbing. This is not behavior I would expect from any respectable person, much less a senator. Sandy Frank Coralville, La.
With all the analysis of what went wrong in the Duke lacrosse scandal (“A Rush to Judgment,” Sept. 10), there is one party that has remained unscathed in all the media reports that I have read about this, including NEWSWEEK: the accuser herself. Other than the obvious excuse of political correctness there is no possible explanation for this omission of blame. Granted, prosecutor Mike Nifong should have been the adult in the room and quashed this abusive, unjustifiable criminal proceeding, but where is the media derision of the instigator of this injustice? Had this accuser been white and had she wrongly accused three black Duke football players of misdeeds you can be sure that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would have been mobilizing their usual minions to humiliate her publicly and the media would not have been far behind. Just because reprehensible conduct does not meet the media-preferred template of the abuse of minorities does not mean that such conduct should go uncriticized and unexamined. Joe Cordill Shreveport, La.
