PUBLIC FORUM WRONG REASON.

I find your Dec. 26 front-page headline highly offensive. The soldiers did not lose their lives for me; they lost their lives for a self-righteous president and the agenda of a lunatic administration.

- Stuart Schaller

Valley Village

Irrelevant evidence

Re ``They gave their lives for you'' (Dec. 26):

The times bode well for the Flat Earth Society, and it will be only a matter of time before the elitists of academia reflect a more common-sense notion of celestial shapes. After all, if a significant portion of the public can persist in the heart-of-hearts (and government-fed) feeling that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and collaborative complicity with al-Qaida, then actual evidence has become quite irrelevant.

Similarly, if the administration reports Iraqi casualties as minimal ``collateral damage,'' why should we be concerned that the respected British medical journal The Lancet places the death toll of Iraqis at more like 200,000.

- Alan Benson

Newbury Park

Died in vain

Re ``They gave their lives for you'' (Dec. 26):

I take exception to the Dec. 26 headline of the Daily News. The Iraqi war has done nothing to further the security or the interests of the United States. The sad truth is, the people who died in it died for nothing.

- Josh Rivetz

Northridge

Rumsfeld upheld

Re ``Rumsfeld must go'' (Editorial, Dec. 27):

Taking this drastic measure would require that you substantiate the truth that ``most Americans'' agree with you. Over the holidays, you must have missed the positive, heart-warming visit of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq (or else you watched a medium other than the Fox News Channel).

These fighting warriors gave him their vote of confidence. I appeal to you to lay aside your liberal bias at such a crucial time, take up the mental frame of our president, and manifest confidence as he does in Secretary Rumsfeld, who, by the way, serves our country without salary.

- Kenneth Grissom

La Crescenta

Bring them home

Re Patrick Weir's ``We can't win'' (Your Opinions, Dec, 26):

Unfortunately, it is correct.

Our soldiers are heroes in every sense of the word. The problem is that too many of the Iraqis do not have the same view of the world held by most Americans.

The president has offered a continuing list of reasons for our soldiers to be in Iraq, but the reality is that the Iraqis don't want us in their country. They probably don't understand western democracy, and they don't appear to want to learn how it functions. Weir is correct when he says ``they do not deserve the freedom'' that we are willing to die for. It's time to bring our heroes home.

- Don Evans

Canoga Park

Now's the time

Re ``Planning director to quit in 2005'' (Dec. 23):

What a thoughtful and wonderful Christmas, oops, holiday, present City Planning Director Con Howe has given Los Angeles with his retirement announcement. It's also time for some of the old guard in the Planning Department to consider joining him, especially those who have fought the concept of neighborhood-development specific plans and neighborhood council empowerment for neighborhood land-use decision making.

Along with selecting a replacement, the issue of neighborhood council land-use planning and land-use decision-making empowerment should go on the City Council table. Given this news, and with upcoming Los Angeles city elections, the time and the opportunity to pursue real neighborhood empowerment may never be better.

- Tom Paterson

Valley Village

Not dream; nightmare

Re ``College gives immigrant a dream'' (Mariel Garza column, Dec. 25):

This is the story of an illegal alien who is going to college at the expense of taxpayers. The article gives the first and last names of the family, along with the geographic location. One hopes immigration authorities will read the article.

- Caroline K. Malloy

Reseda

No exceptions

Re ``Mexico, U.S. ignore illegal immigration'' (Viewpoint, Dec. 26):

Congratulations to Jill Stewart on her excellent piece exposing the irresponsibility of both the U.S. and Mexican governments regarding the high cost imposed upon California taxpayers for the imprisonment here of 28,672 foreign law-breakers, an estimated half of whom are Mexican illegal aliens.

The solution to this problem is a simple one: For any existing diplomatic agency here, or before any new foreign consulate is established in any city of this country, mandatory prisoner exchange policies must be in place to return convicted foreigners to their country of origin within 30 days of conviction. For those countries that choose not to participate: adios, sayonara, etc. - no exceptions.

- Stephen A. Downs

Valley Village

Must prove it

Re ``Jackson persecuted'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 26):

Philip Wilt thinks Michael Jackson is persecuted with unprecedented search warrants. It appears to me that these people are facing a man who seems to have unlimited funds to fight the legal system. To the world, he seems to be a Peter Pan who has helped many children and provided an amazing playground for unfortunate children to recover from deadly diseases.

If this was his only agenda, then he would be held in high esteem. But there are serious accusations against him at present - too many coming from too many children. If Michael Jackson is innocent, as he claims, then his passel of high-priced lawyers will prove it.

- Carol Sinclair

Newhall

And pretty tasty

Re ``A gentle Christmas'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 23):

As long as the vegetarian point of view is printed, let me offer this. Early man didn't have soy-based deli slices or any other mad scientist's soy concoction. What early people did have was fire and tools to make food with.

It's fine if there are individuals who utilize today's technology to alter their lifestyles, but that doesn't mean that eating turkey is unnatural. Not only do we eat animals because that is how nature intended, but our taste buds also share one common opinion: Animals are delicious. Have a happy new year.

- Malcolm Gee

Van Nuys

Get it right

Re ``Parks & flex'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 26):

Could we please get our adages right before we use them to make a point? Police Protective League President Bob Baker talks about the flex program and how it's working. He says, ``The proof is in the pudding on this one.'' What proof? What pudding?

Here's the true saying: ``The proof of the pudding is in the eating.'' Now, we see how the adage helps to make his point when he says, ``Flexible scheduling has increased officer morale and significantly improved retention and recruitment. We are hard-pressed to understand how this can be seen as anything except a successful program.'' I have seen this saying misused by more than one person when being quoted in your pages. I hope that they will take note.

- Gene Walinski

Chatsworth

You shouldn't have

Guess what our community gave to me (and five of my neighbors living between the middle and high schools) on Christmas night? A smashed car window. That never happened when the homeless people lived up the street.

- Robin Supak

Canyon Country

Instruction needed

Re ``Bills kept ringing up despite warning'' (Dec. 19):

It is difficult to understand why the two city workers who incurred high personal-use cell-phone bills could not be fired for cause. The excuse is that they were not instructed that city phones were not for personal use. I hope that they have also been instructed that they cannot carpool children to school in the trash trucks!

- Harry N. Hirschensohn

Sherman Oaks