Readers Respond -- Readers return favor to Dana Rohrabacher

Just what we need, surfing Congressman Dana Rohrabacher playing

partisan politics in a time of national grieving (“Rohrabacher lashes out

at past U.S. policy,” Tuesday). Excuse me, and please disagree with me if

you wish, but Rohrabacher’s simpleton views of this most complex

geopolitical quagmire absolutely disgust me.

Wasn’t it President Clinton who authorized cruise missile attacks

against Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan after the bombing of the World

Trade Center? Wasn’t it President Reagan (a Republican) who financed the

Afghani resistance to the Russian occupation, which also helped finance

bin Laden and those like him? Wasn’t it George Bush (the former President

and also Republican) who didn’t have the resolve to finish off Saddam

Hussein of Iraq, against the advice of his military commanders, which has

provided support, morale and material to Islamic fundamentalism?

And the current President Bush calls for a “crusade” against

evildoers. Holy cow, this is like saying let’s start a war with all

Muslims. Crusade? Yes, we should and will deal with Islamic

fundamentalist extremists, but to broad brush all Muslims as extremists

is wrong.

George W. Bush is buying into the exact plan bin Laden desires by his

bellicose rhetoric. I hope we can all try not to repeat the mistakes of

the past, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War

II, or the lynching of innocent people because of the color of their

skin.

PAUL JAMES BALDWIN

Newport Beach

I can only hope that Congressman Rohrabacher funded his “secret” trip

to Afghanistan in 1988 out of his own pocket and not at the taxpayers’

expense.

As a constituent, I feel that he should be paying closer attention to

the needs, wants and cares of his district, and not hobnobbing with

terrorists.

The blame that he places on President Clinton and his administration

for not listening to his “begging” to support the resisters of the

Taliban regime appears, by his words, to warm his heart during this time

of devastating tragedy for all Americans.

By placing blame toward anyone in the United States at this time seems

like a blatant act of total disrespect, lack of compassion and serious

delusions of grandeur on his part. This direct disregard of human life by

terrorists is not a political issue. I would hope that he would

understand that death by the hands of another is nonpartisan.

MAXINE M. MACHA

Costa Mesa