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Congress, end madness

According to ABC News, at least 2,000 bodies of Iraqi civilians have been collected every month over the past three years --- that's 72,000 people, in addition to the 100,000 civilians reported killed during our initial invasion. Now President Bush has launched Operation Swarmer, the largest air assault in three years.

Meanwhile, more than 2,300 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 17,000 wounded. The financial burden of the war is more than $200 billion, and counting.

Bush has brought a new meaning to the term "overkill." Patriotic Americans see his folly and are in shock and awe for our country, as well as for our troops who are now so hated by the Iraqis. Congressional oversight and action are a must if we are to end the madness, bring our troops home from the civil war we have created and allow the people of Iraq to find their way toward healing and recovery.

LINDA EDMONDS, Decatur

Washington needs different approach

The Bush administration's "new" national security strategy may as well be named "Bring it on." The president dusted off his 2002 strike-first policy, and it is the same old mistake in a world begging for innovative understanding, harmony and sharing.

Has anybody in Washington considered getting out of cushy, bureaucratic chairs and traveling to our allies' and adversaries' front porches? Maybe sitting down with an iced tea, or even cutting brush alongside other cultures in the spirit of understanding? It's hard work, but nothing else is working. The White House is only working to support failure, despair and the lazy rich feeding off the military industrial complex.

Woodrow Wilson unintentionally taught a lesson: War never ends war; it creates war. Every war since WWI has reinforced that knowledge. Let's try something new.

TOM TODARO, Duluth

Responses to ''Iraq drowns in U.S. delusions,'' issue, March 17

Critics of the war fuel the insurgency

Columnist Bob Herbert, continuing the assault on President Bush, blames the United States for civilian deaths in Iraq but doesn't mention the 200,000-plus that Saddam Hussein killed, raped and tortured for whatever reason was made up on a particular day.

It's people like Herbert who are killing the Iraqi people by giving the insurgency fuel to continue. Talk to wounded veterans returning from Iraq and you'll find their desire to return and finish a worthy cause is great.

As a Vietnam veteran, I too was in an unpopular war, yet I did my duty because my personal feelings didn't count. What's next from Herbert --- "President Bush behind Sept. 11"?

FLOYD JONES, Canton

U.S. should leave, as Iraqis want us to

Finally, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published something on the Iraq war that doesn't have a neocon spin: Bob Herbert's precise description of it as the tragic result of a disastrous policy.

The United States may now have its last chance to get out without huge losses. If civil war breaks out, we will not be able to stand aside and watch the Iraqi forces take care of things, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently told Congress. We chose sides in the bitter Sunni-Shia struggle, and the Sunnis will not forget. Both sides want us to leave.

GENE GRIESSMAN, Sandy Springs

Taxation: Responses to ''Big price on senior tax break,'' @issue, March 17

Senior citizens give more than they get

The $100 million cost of making Georgia more attractive to retirees is small compared to the amount of taxes that would be lost if Georgia boomers moved to Florida or Tennessee.

Also, we retirees spend money in Georgia and pay lots of sales taxes. If all the elements are properly factored in, the long-term benefits to Georgia are apparent and the costs would be more than fully offset by those benefits.

This proposal has generated goodwill among the senior citizens of Georgia, and frankly it's time that government properly recognized the contribution to the general prosperity that retirees have made over the years. Instead of allowing business to default on pension plans and threatening to cut Social Security, those elected to office should be protecting seniors' well-being.

TOM McMANUS, Roswell

Not all retirees will applaud plan

I will retire in May, the constitutional amendment to exempt most retirement income from taxes would apply to me, and I'm about as upset as I can get over this proposal.

I've lived in Georgia since 1964, and the state has been good to me. I plan to live many more years, and while here I expect to use many government services such as roads and parks. I will continue to receive police and fire protection. Georgia will continue to keep criminals in prison, and while they are there I will benefit from living in a safer society.

I could go on, but I think I've made my point. As a resident of Georgia, I receive benefits from the state.

I ought to help pay for these services. The proposed legislation is nuts. I hope the House has more sense than the Senate.

JIM O'NEILL, Snellville

Forgive Campbell?!

As a former employee of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, I deeply resent the article by Bill Campbell's attorney, Michael Coleman ("End effort to tar, feather Campbell," @issue, March 16).

"Let's move on," Coleman writes, hoping that the thousands of us who worked for years to make Atlanta beautiful to the world for the Olympic Games in 1996 will forgive Campbell for the way his cronies turned our downtown into a Third World fairground.

JAMES HENDERSON, Vinings

U.S. cars less friendly

American car companies seem to have forgotten an important reason many folks used to buy American: Cars made here used to be user-friendly.

There was a time I could change my car's oil myself, but now the filter cannot be reached by a mere mortal. I used to flush and change my antifreeze every fall, but now the little valve that let me drain the radiator is gone. Alternators could be reached easily and did not cost $400.

There is no longer an advantage to buying American.

MICHAEL A. BENSON, Flowery Branch

Would-be news viewers are trapped in traffic

David Hazinski is no doubt correct in his assertion that national and local TV news is losing viewers ("TV news will get viewers out of dark," @issue, March 17).

If you want to see where the audience is, just look out on I-75 or I-85 between 5 and 7 p.m. Hundreds of thousands of potential viewers are in their cars, trapped like rats --- and when they get home, the last thing they want to do is switch on the TV for news.

All news is essentially the same story with different names anyway. When a big one hits, we select our instant cable news channel for about nine seconds and then go about our business because we, as an attention-deficit-disorder society, are suffering from news overload.

ALLEN S. FACEMIRE, Norcross