PUBLIC FORUM.

Try a just conflict

Re ``U.S. must relearn how to fight, win'' (Viewpoint, Jan. 28):

As a veteran of World War II, I am well aware of the determination and support of the American people during that conflict. When you speak of a present-day lack of this kind of support for the Iraq war, I believe you will find that this lessening of determination is not the result of a lack of ``emotional fortitude to endure battle,'' but rather a deepening distrust of the validity of going into this kind of war in the first place.

When the validity of the reason for going into this war proved weak, the American public proved smart enough to ask questions. We will always support the troops, but we will not support the blundering brains behind this present fiasco. I will never believe that the American people lack the emotional fortitude to endure a just conflict.

-- Hal Gold

Woodland Hills

Always a price

Re ``U.S. must relearn how to fight, win'' (Viewpoint, Jan. 28):

Props to Robert Parry and the Daily News for printing his article about the U.S. public's failure of will in Iraq. The continual day-to-day drip of casualties is not something to take lightly, but compared with the battles of the past, they are a fraction of the casualties suffered.

The Vietnam War, which so many compare this to, had 19 times the casualties. Americans need to learn their history and realize there is a price to be paid for both continued engagement or a hasty withdrawal.

-- Jeff Zimmer

Sherman Oaks

The cockroaches 

Between one editorial, ``City Hall gang'' (Jan. 25, with Patrick O'Connor's cartoon), and the other, ``Highway Robbery'' (Jan. 26), the Daily News has properly turned a bright light on the cockroaches that infest city and state government. Watch 'em scatter and hide behind their ill-deserved perks.

With so much attention paid to the Bush administration criminal cabal, we can be distracted from the spectacular corruption and astonishing incompetence that have metastasized locally. And politicians actually wonder why they're held in contempt? Keep holding their feet to the fire.

-- Gary W. Dolgin

Santa Monica

Start at the beginning

Re ``Mayor's cure for poverty'' (Jan. 26):

Where is the money coming from for the government to match? I smell new taxes in the air. Secondly, my kids, who are in eighth grade, can't spell easy words or handwrite. The spelling words they were given in elementary school were chosen to look like the children were learning above their grade level when, in reality, they couldn't differentiate words like ``witch'' and ``which,'' ``there'' and ``their,'' ``than'' and ``then,'' along with not spelling simple words correctly.

Also, they were too busy printing because it was easier for the teachers to read their work. If the mayor wants to do something, maybe he should start from the beginning instead of worrying about college for children.

-- Erin Ziliak

Sylmar

Never-learn board

Re ``Los Angeles County jilted again'' (Jan. 31):

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has a real problem, it seems, but then these supervisors always have problems they never learn to solve. Here we have David Janssen retired, and they have to hire him back because they wait too long to get a replacement, and now a guy wants the job and then does not want the job, after another person has turned the supervisors' offer down.

Did they think maybe Janssen had a qualified assistant they could promote, at least till they found someone they did want, if they were not happy with his assistant? Their problems are based on too many personal projects and not enough time invested in county projects.

-- Jim Avery

Valencia

Pay for them now

I keep reading about the problem of having enough police officers on the streets to combat the upward crime trend. The only way to combat this problem right now is to put more officers on the streets today. Since the Los Angeles Police Department Academy has only about 40 officers going through each month, the only logical way to put more officers on the streets right now is to pay overtime for officers already on the job to come in on their days off and work.

Common sense tells you that the only way to do it right now is to pay for it. Since the mayor has allocated the money for 1,000 new officers and the extra trash fee is building up in the bank, just use that to pay for more officers today.

-- Officer Jeff Smith

LAPD Foothill Division

Peace ... peace

Observing this past weekend's anti-war demonstrations, I'm committed to renewing my most heartfelt hope that one day I'll wake up and the 1960s will finally be over.

-- Michael D. White 

Los Angeles

Jihad Jane

Re ``Tens of thousands protest Iraq war in nation's capital'' (Jan. 28):

The real Jane Fonda has surfaced at the latest anti-America rally. Jihad Jane (aka Hanoi Jane) is again leading the effort to demoralize our troops and engineer the defeat of America to the Islamic terrorists. It would not surprise me to see her plastered all over the place in her burqa and AK-47 posing next to Osama bin Laden.

She sold out America to the communists, and now she is selling out America to the terrorists.

-- Bob Tanabe

La Canada Flintridge

Left behind

Most Americans now see through President Bush's claims about the Iraq war. What is generally not well known is the administration's duplicity in the area of education. In his State of the Union address, Bush stated that ``the No Child Left Behind Act has worked for America's children.''

This is a disingenuous statement. No Child Left Behind has turned schools into test-preparation centers, has reduced reading instruction to phonics exercises, and has discouraged in-school free reading. The administration is claiming that the program works, but this claim is as bogus as the claim about weapons of mass destruction.

-- Ron Lowe

Grass Valley

Political commissars

Re ``Bush bends rules in White House favor'' (Jan. 30):

So, George W. Bush has mandated that each federal agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee. This will help assure that the agencies carry out the president's priorities. If anyone out there remembers history, this type of situation should have a familiar ring. This is the same job that the political commissars had in the old Soviet Union in maintaining the party line. Could history be repeating itself?

-- Ed Mehlenbacher

Van Nuys

Parenting classes

Re ``Parent's license'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 31):

Since when was parenthood a privilege and not a right? If nobody can stop a woman from getting an abortion, then who is to stop her if she chooses to raise the child? Holding parents legally accountable to sit through a class and watch a video on how to raise a baby just doesn't make sense.

Does failure to comply result in the baby's abortion or arrest of a pregnant woman? This idea might work, but that's if you lived in a communist country like North Korea. Might as well limit every citizen to one child per couple.

-- Frederick Santos

Northridge

Mr. Lucky?

Re ``First man?'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 29):

For the gentleman who wrote in wondering what we would call former President Bill Clinton if his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is elected president, I have a suggestion: how about Lucky?

-- Susan Pasternak

North Hollywood