My anger about the war has only intensified

It turns out the situation in Iraq wasn't just a case of the media only focusing on the negatives, after all. Even President Bush is opining that "it's bad in Iraq."

As one of the many people who saw the folly of going to war from day one, I should feel vindicated. I should be getting satisfaction from pro-war Republicans running from the president's bluster. I should feel gladdened that Dick Cheney has shut up, his inflammatory chicken-hawk rhetoric falling flat against a backdrop of chaos and doubt.

But I don't.

Instead, I'm more angry than ever. I'm more angry than ever about the loss of American life without a plan to win the peace, about the billion-dollar-per-week expense that I and my children will shoulder for decades to come, and about how the leaders in our country, until recently, were claiming success, that all was well and that we were winning.

The Iraq Study Group has helped more to see the Emperor's New Clothes ("Report Repudiates Bush's Diplomatic, Military Moves," Dec. 7). But interestingly, many of their findings were touted by John Kerry during the 2004 election. The transcript from the Sept. 30, 2004, presidential debate clearly shows John Kerry calling for working with neighbors within the region, focusing on training Iraqis and citing the very real threat of civil war in Iraq. Sound familiar?

We'll never know how a John Kerry presidency would have altered the events in Iraq. But it's hard to imagine that it could have gone any worse.

ROB GARDNER
Mt. Lebanon

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Presidential parsing

Some years ago the American people were treated to the spectacle of an American president arguing about the definition of "is."

Now, some years later we are treated to the spectacle of another American president arguing about the definition of "civil war."

It appears that the next American president should be a lexicographer, not a double-talking, word-bending politician.

THOMAS DOUGHERTY
Ambridge

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No surprise

The Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force now "leans toward the Isle of Capri as the best casino for the community" ("And the Award Goes To ...," Dec. 10 Forum). Wow, what a surprise.

But it seems the task force could have saved itself a lot of money. From the moment Isle of Capri officials uttered the magic words, "free arena for the Penguins," was there any doubt in anyone's mind who the choice of the task force would be?

ED BRADLEY
Cranberry

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This isn't renewal

I admire the tenacity of the ministers from the Hill and Hill District resident Kim Ellis in their attempt to deliver a letter of opposition to the proposed casino in the Hill to state Gaming Control Board offices on Friday in Downtown ("Casino Protest by Clergy Thwarted," Dec. 9).

I have been reading with interest about the so-called "urban renewal" proposal by Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. to build a gambling casino in the Hill. The proposal also includes $290 million for a new arena in addition to the casino. Residents in the Hill are in opposition to a casino for fear it could bring crime and parking problems and exploit people least able to afford gambling.

I live in Shaler and wonder how residents of this suburban community would take to all the noise, corruption and crime a casino would bring to a place where we live, raise our children and spend the majority of our time.

If the city were truly interested in "urban renewal," why not dump plans for a casino in the Hill and give residents grocery stores, affordable housing, recreational facilities for youth and a safe and decent community they can be proud of?

FRANCINE PORTER
Shaler

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Admirable Bolton

While the reliably liberal Post-Gazette is overjoyed with John Bolton stepping down from his recess appointment as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations ("Bye-Bye, Bolton: The U.S. Deserves a Real Diplomat at the U.N.," Dec. 6), I do not recall the PG being similarly upset over Bill Clinton's recess appointments of Bill Lann Lee and Roger Gregory, to name two. I suppose it's OK when it fits the editorial slant.

I think it was high time we had an ambassador to the United Nations who looked out for America's interests first and didn't kowtow to the guilt trips from tinpot Third World dirt herders who mostly seek ways to extort taxpayer money from the United States.

John Bolton did an admirable job in corralling help with Iraq and security issues with Iran and North Korea. If he ruffled a few feathers at the United Nations, they were feathers that deserved to be ruffled. What upsets me more is that regardless of who is in the White House or which party controls the Senate, a committee or a single committee chairman elected by the people of only one state can deny a floor vote in the Senate to someone who may well pass if the vote were put to the whole body.

This tactic effectively denies the rest of the country a say in who represents and, in some cases, judges us.

JON O'DATA
Rochester

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A welcoming church

Thank you for Clarke Thomas' wonderfully positive and informative column "Glory to God and All God's Children" (Dec. 6). It is long overdue.

For the record, my church, Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church on the North Side, is openly and assertively GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) friendly. Until now, though, we have not been very public with our views. This is about to change.

This year, our 100th, we are completing our denomination's official GLBT welcoming process and will soon be certified as a Unitarian Universalist Association Welcoming Congregation.

PETE McQUILLIN
Forest Hills

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Fort Pitt travesty

We preservationists are furious with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Riverlife Task Force and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development for continuing work to fill in the Music Bastion at Point State Park with a chunky mix of rubble likely to damage the 250-year-old handmade bricks ("Group Unhappy With Plan to Dump on Fort Pitt," Dec. 7).

We agree with Michael Nixon, the preservation consultant and attorney for the Fort Pitt Preservation Society, that they are using the moat as a garbage dump. They are getting $35 million for this renovation, yet Gene Comoss, DCNR's chief engineer, said to truck in proper material would add $300,000 to the cost of the renovation, and he said that's a lot of money. Richard Lang, an archaeologist who was crew chief on the excavation that uncovered the bastion, said the state should renegotiate its contract and do what is necessary to protect and restore the original materials of the fort.

Our Fort Pitt should be protected and beautified, not filled in and made to disappear. Why can't we stop this?

JOANNE LEBOVITZ
Downtown

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Can we afford not to return to the moon?

Your editorial "Blue Moon" (Dec. 9) uses exactly the same type and tone of arguments used against the original space program in the 1960s. It's way too expensive, the money is better spent elsewhere, there's no tangible gain, etc.

Yet the knowledge we gained in the original space program advanced electronics and rocketry by decades. In 1959 my sixth-grade teacher criticized U.S. rocketry with this statement: "When the Russians want to put a radio in a satellite, they put a radio in a satellite. When the U.S. wants to put a radio in a satellite, they have to miniaturize it first, because the Russian rockets are so much more powerful than ours."

He was right, at the time, but we quickly overcame the Soviet throw-weight advantage, and, more prophetically, the miniaturization continued. All of the microprocessor-based technology so vital to our economy today is fruit from those early seeds of forced miniaturization. So what will we gain by returning?

Some possible advances we can speculate about include an improved Hubble telescope, free from sunlight interference by being on the dark side of the moon half of the time. Also, scientists believe that significant quantities of helium-3 are present on the moon, and helium-3 may be the key to unlocking "cold fusion" power. The truth is that we can only imagine what we may gain, but if it's anything like the last time our imagination will fall way short.

My sixth-grade teacher could not possibly have imagined being able to search the term "rocket science" on the Internet, while balancing his checkbook and playing solitaire at the same time on a computer the size of a textbook.

CRAIG B. CLEMMENS
Apollo

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