SpringfieldNewsSun.com

Letters 4/24

Bush, Rumsfeld should quit

Recently six retired generals of the United States Armed Forces have called for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Such a call for Rumsfeld's resignation is extraordinary in that retired military offers typically do not say or do anything that might upset the people in government who have control over their pensions and benefits or to jeopardize their future employment options. These six men are to be commended for taking a stand.

Three of the generals who spoke out were ground commanders in Iraq. They know firsthand that the current policies are not working and are causing unnecessary loss of American life.

We are now bogged down in a war which we can not win and are losing between 15 and 20 brave men and women each week. The United States either needs to commit every weapon at their disposal and end this war or withdraw our troops and cut our losses. Soldiers are meant to fight battles and to protect the citizens of this country. We do not train them to be peacekeepers in a foreign country for an indefinite period of time.

The resignations should not end with Rumsfeld. The persons who should resign are the ones who misinterpreted the intelligence and implemented the flawed policies in Iraq. They are the ones who have gotten the United States into the position that we are currently in.

The most patriotic thing that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney can do is to resign.

Jim Oliver

Springfield

Mouth grills another fad

I write in response to the article on mouth grills, called the latest hip-hop style on the streets.

There is no difference between those who wear mouth grills and those who have tattoos, piercings, cosmetic surgery and TV makeover shows.

Mouth grills, like any other fad, have their origin in our body-obsessed culture. People aren't satisifed with their looks and they rely on pop icons for cues on what is attractive.

Tattooing, previously associated with sailors, is now flaunted by stars like Ben Affleck, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Consequently, people want to imitate them. You can get tattoos as large or as small as your money. While you can remove mouth grills. tattoos remain. Your choices are to cover the tattoo or spend $1,000 an inch to remove it.

Piercing, like a grill, can be removed. It does have that issue of putting a hole in your body.

Cosmetic surgery is the ultimate body obsession. Women get breast enlargements costing thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, men get hair implants, chest enlargements and wrinkles removed – all for an image.

Lastly, we have a society that gets a daily dose of television programs where people get fat sucked from their guts and relocated to their butts and botox shots into their faces. So in the scheme of things, people who wear mouth grills are doing the same thing with their money that the rest of society is doing.

Forest B. Wortham, D. Ed

Wittenberg University

Springfield