I find it amusing that both PG columnist Jack Kelly ("On the Verge of Victory," March 23) and Sen. John McCain think that we have somehow come within reach of success in Iraq. "Success" would indicate that there was some outcome in Iraq that would have some impact on our country.

There has never been one moment in history when the actions or fate of either country has had one tenuous connection to the other.

Our involvement in Iraq hasn't just been a mistake -- it has been irrational.

It has been reported that John McCain was an advocate of the "surge." It sounds suspiciously like the idea that we just needed to try harder in Vietnam.

JAMES RETZER
Beechview

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The number of American dead in Iraq has now reached 4,000, with the number of wounded, maimed and disabled being much higher. On Easter Sunday Vice President Dick Cheney said that he regretted every casualty, every death, in Iraq.

It is unfortunate that his concern for the American soldier did not outweigh his desire to promote the interests of the Halliburton Corp. in 2003 when the attack on Iraq was launched with no credible evidence of any threat to the United States from Iraq.

Dick Cheney had no business experience when he was hired by Halliburton in 1995 after serving as defense secretary for President George H.W. Bush. He had worked his entire career for the federal government.

Mr. Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. He certainly was not hired for his business experience or acumen; he was clearly hired for his contacts and potential future government career prospects. He made millions of dollars in salary and benefits at Halliburton. The gamble of hiring Dick Cheney later paid off in the form of the no-bid multimillion-dollar contracts Halliburton received for work in Iraq.

In his last speech as president, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American people of the growing military-industrial complex. He was right, but he should have called it the military-executive branch-industrial complex.

Dick Cheney is the worst example of the people President Eisenhower had in mind.

JAMES BUKES
Mt. Lebanon

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A deteriorating support column beneath I-95 forced the highway's closure recently ("Section of I-95 Closed in Phila.," March 19). Supports for the Birmingham Bridge recently failed. In August, Minnesota's structurally deficient I-35 bridge collapsed with tragic consequences.

PennDOT reports that Pennsylvania has the largest number of structurally deficient bridges in the nation -- nearly 6,000 statewide. Over the last five years Pennsylvania has spent $3.8 billion in bridge repairs all over the state, but we're still not ahead of the game and really we haven't made a dent in the backlog of repairs that are needed.

That $3.8 billion figure sound familiar? It also happens to be the current price tag for construction of the proposed Mon-Fayette connection to Pittsburgh. Think one 24-mile stretch of redundant new highway is worth 1,381 bridges? What this region needs is smart future-looking development: reclamation of brownfields and other aging industrial sites, rejuvenation of city neighborhoods and transit-oriented development to accompany sustainable investment in mass transit.

Let your representatives in Harrisburg and Washington know that we need to maintain and revitalize what we already have before we build a highway that tries to vainly recreate the past through a boondoggle highway project.

JOHN INSERRA
Mt. Lebanon

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Why should our senators and representatives support the Marriage Protection Amendment (SB 1250)? Same-sex marriage is not a civil rights issue akin to the African-American struggle for equality. No less a civil rights icon than Jesse Jackson has denounced that claim, noting that "gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution."

Opponents also have turned to an emotional argument in asking, "How does one couple's gay marriage threaten anyone's heterosexual marriage?" This question misses the point, which is revision of national policy to say that gender, especially in child rearing, is inconsequential, even though research indicates children do best when raised by a married mother and father. We must resist these and other distortions of the truth and protect marriage and the benefits it brings.

In places where same-sex marriage has been ordered by the courts, such as New Jersey, a church organization has lost part of its tax-exempt status for refusing to facilitate a same-sex wedding ceremony. Catholic Charities of Massachusetts can no longer be licensed to do adoptions because they won't violate church teaching and place children with same-sex couples.

And parents no longer have any say in what their children will be taught in school about marriage, human sexuality or right and wrong.

This aggressive campaign to undermine marriage as it has always been known can be defeated if we all stand up to support the Marriage Protection Amendment.

PATRICK J. McMAHON, M.D.
Squirrel Hill

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I agree with Adagio Health's president, Richard Baird, when he writes of the superiority of comprehensive sexual education over abstinence-only approaches ("We Must Invest in Comprehensive Sexuality Education," March 20 letters).

Injection of Puritanical religious principles into such a vital public health program as sexual education is a recipe for disaster. It is only by embracing science, reason and the truth -- in the form of comprehensive sexual education -- that scourges such as sexually transmitted infections can be combated.

AMESH A. ADALJA, M.D.
Fellow
Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Oakland

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We just bought a house in Oklahoma Borough, Westmoreland County, and when doing some renovations, we found a corner piece of the Post-Gazette newspaper wedged between a water pipe and a basement rafter.

After removing this paper, and letting it soften up some, we were able to open it and found it dated Feb. 6, 1945. There is only part of this paper intact, but it shows a piece of a radio broadcast listing and a section about ballplayer Honus Wagner. I think it is so cool to find a piece of local history in our little home.

EARL DEROCHIE
Oklahoma

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