Letters

The Incredible Shrinking Ex-President

"Perhaps now we can all stop pretending that so-called private morality does not affect a person's public behavior." BOB SMALLMAN Merrill, Wis.

The pardons Bill Clinton issued that are being questioned look suspiciously as if they were influenced by money [NATION, Feb. 26]. And while I may be disgusted with the pardons, I am not surprised. Until we clean up our system, why not put applicants for pardons in the same category as other favor seekers in government, the one that includes people who make big donations to become an ambassador? That way we would not be hypocrites. We would just be recognizing it is politics as usual. STEWART PERRY Wayzata, Minn.

The incredible thing is that while the Republicans don't have Bill Clinton to kick around anymore, that doesn't stop them from doing it. Clinton may be remembered as the President who was never once given a break. KEVIN DAWSON Sunland, Calif.

Why is there no demand that Presidents--and Governors--be denied the power to pardon, which is so obviously open to abuse? Clinton's pardons may have been the worst, but they were hardly the first to be controversial. The power to pardon assumes that due process will fail and that Presidents and Governors will have the wisdom and good conscience to remedy its failures. The sad truth is that these officials are cut from the same cloth as the rest of us. BOB HILTON Iowa City

On balance, I am very satisfied with the judgment of former President Clinton in granting a pardon to fugitive billionaire Marc Rich. This controversy demonstrates that the person who holds the office of President is one of the few people who aren't caught up in legal and political minutiae and thus can see the bigger picture. The postelection hassles show how much the conservatives need Clinton as a whipping boy. Without him, they will have to accept responsibility for governing now that they have the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate and the House of Representatives. LEON F. DROZD JR. San Francisco

Clinton said he felt our pain, but then he schmoozed with ultra-affluent Hollywood types, acquiesced to the whims of big donors, took things from the White House and retired to extravagant, upper-crust digs. Bill and Hillary Clinton are the American version of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. LINDA A. BIELINSKI Bartlett, Ill.

In the interest of bipartisanship, shouldn't you give the Republicans equal time? I don't recall that you analyzed each of President Bush's pardons in such excruciating detail. ANN C. EDMONDS Bloomington, Ind.

If there is a Presidency that has shrunk, it's that of George W. Bush, whose best ideas are overshadowed by the worst of his predecessor. JAMES A. DITTES Westmoreland, Tenn.

I am not angry at Bill and Hillary. I have to admit that my feelings border on ambivalence and apathy. What does it matter now? Those who once used Clinton when he was President are now through with him, and they are eating him alive. While I have no sympathy for the Clintons, I don't care to join the feast. LOUIS WISLOCKI Rockford, Mich.

If the Republicans think they can win in 2002 and 2004 by hammering Clinton for the next four years, the Democrats have nothing to worry about. BART LANDER Hollister, Calif.

>>Are we terminally addicted to Clinton coverage? Um, well..."You complain that Clinton won't go away, but you won't let him, because he sells magazines," an angry reader in Boston griped to us. "The media's obsession with Bill Clinton is like rubbernecking at a car accident," observed a woman from Simpsonville, S.C. "Nice people aren't supposed to do that." A Las Vegas reader asked, "If you want Clinton to disappear, why don't you stop following him around?" And a New Yorker, who felt that TIME will never quit Clinton cold turkey, wrote, "I can only hope your next Clinton cover headline will take the incredible-shrinking theme to its logical conclusion: 'The Invisible Man.'"

Bill's Fans Strike Back

Clinton is truly one of our greatest Presidents [NATION, Feb. 26], despite his "sins." I would bet that this entire "scandal" is a Republican conspiracy on the part of right-wing conservatives to undermine Hillary's run for the White House in a few years. LINDA HOLZ Ramsey, Minn.

Clinton is sexier, smarter and more charismatic than any of TIME's hacks. His name alone has the power to move your fish wrap off the newsstands. Years from now, this issue of your magazine will be forgotten; Clinton, however, will be remembered as our much maligned and wildly popular 42nd President. STEPHEN LEMONS Burbank, Calif.

Hey, wait a minute! This magazine is printed on high-quality 30-lb. coated paper. Fish wrap, my eye.

Up Periscope

If a sophisticated, state-of-the-art U.S. submarine could not detect a 190-ft. Japanese fishing boat before surfacing [WORLD, Feb. 26], how is the proposed U.S. missile-defense system going to work? The Greeneville flunked preschool; can our military handle the postgraduate world of Star Wars? VIRGINIA L. COPESTAKES Columbus, N.J.

Along with the Japanese training boat Ehime Maru, the U.S. submarine also sank the credibility of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who continued to play golf after getting news of the fatal accident. TETSURO UMEJI Ube, Japan

Surely the most disturbing point was the Americans' labeling the Ehime Maru "a fishing vessel" instead of a high school training boat. If a Japanese warship had sunk an American ship with high school students onboard, causing the death of several of them, what would the American public have said? DAVID WOOD Fukuoka, Japan

Bombs over Baghdad

Imagine if a country more powerful than the U.S. told Americans where they could and could not fly in the airspace over their own country. Clearly that would be intolerable for the U.S., as it would be for any sovereign state, including Iraq. The real damage caused by the bombing of Baghdad [WORLD, Feb. 26] is the increased hostility toward the U.S. among Arabs and the increasing alienation of U.S. allies because of Washington's policy on Iraq. JOHN J. MOELAERT Victoria, B.C.

When I was in London during World War II, I learned that bombing a people is the best possible way to create solidarity among them. And I have watched the formula work in various countries ever since. This is what is happening in Iraq. I don't know the best way to deal with Saddam Hussein, but I do know that cementing allegiance among his people while killing children is not the way. JOHN F. MASON Barcelona

The bombing of targets around Baghdad by British and American warplanes is proof that there is no U.S. President who is not a bully. And Britain should stop pretending it is an independent nation, for we know it doesn't make a decision without asking the Americans first. Saddam has done very little to warrant the bombing of his people. Let's have some shame. JOSPHAT GWEZHIRA Harare, Zimbabwe

Drawing Closer to Cloning

The investment of human effort and technology in experiments to clone humans represents the worst type of scientific endeavor [SOCIETY, Feb. 19]. Why is it that Nature, in all its splendid manifestations, tends everywhere to spectacular diversity and mind-boggling detail, yet whenever we seek to copy it, we achieve only bleak standardization and stifling unity? Our scientific obsession with the cloning of spiritless matter will lead us to further spiritual impoverishment and predictable genetic disaster. MARTHE MULLER Cape Town

Cloning people as a fertility treatment strikes me as wrongheaded. Certainly the information in your article strongly suggests that a woman who has trouble getting pregnant through in-vitro fertilization will have no better luck if the embryo used is a clone. People who want a baby could consider adoption. Certainly there are more than enough orphans in this world who would benefit from having a family and a home. JAIME GARY BRAUN Naucalpan, Mexico

Those who advocate human cloning seem to ignore the inherent wastefulness and disregard of human dignity that the process involves. I fail to comprehend the scientist who explains his work as a duty to help people who want to complete their life cycle by reproducing. Rather, the driving force behind scientists' efforts to clone is the commercial opportunity that feeds on the hopes of the pro-cloning people. I recommend that all involved have a good read of Brave New World and rethink their enthusiasm about human cloning. SABINA STILLER Oosterbeek, the Netherlands

Rocking the Whole Family

Your story on the cross-generational appeal of pop music hit home with me [MUSIC, Feb. 26]. In 1968, at age 17, I saw the Doors in concert. In 1994 my 17- and 21-year-old sons were playing my Doors tape all the time. Your illustration of the baby wearing Kiss-style makeup, holding up a cigarette lighter (nice touch), looks just like my granddaughter. What goes around comes around. DAVE CONWAY Oxford, Conn.

Rock on, dude! But don't let that baby light any fires.

Arafat and History

Your article on what makes Yasser Arafat tick [WORLD, Feb. 26] captured the essence of what has made negotiating for peace in the Middle East so difficult: The immense pressure by Israel and the U.S. on the Palestinian Authority to agree to a settlement that defies the most basic aspirations of its people and leaves a future Palestinian state hobbled and impossible to manage. Bravo on an excellent and responsible piece of reporting! MAZ JADALLAH New York City

Scott MacLeod's article was marred by the omission of key information about Arafat. MacLeod gave scant attention to Arafat's career as a terrorist over a period that has spanned decades and continues to this day. Absent in this portrait was a long list of atrocities committed by Fatah and P.L.O. member groups under Arafat's guidance. MacLeod virtually ignored Arafat's autocratic regime and the lack of democracy in the Palestinian areas. HENRY FRANK Camp Hill, Pa.

Far from bringing the "Palestinians a long way," Arafat has delayed the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian Arabs through decades of terrorism. Had the Palestinian Arabs had a Gandhi to lead them instead of an Arafat, they would have had their state years ago. Arafat's war against Israel, including the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich in '72 and the murder of 21 schoolchildren in Ma'alot in '74, isolated the Palestinian cause and resulted in the Palestinians-as-terrorists stereotype. The latest round of terrorism Arafat has launched against Israel has devastated the Palestinian economy. MacLeod ignored the context in which the Palestinian refugees were created in 1948. At that time, the U.N. partition plan divided the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted, the Arabs did not, resulting in the displacement of some of the Palestinians. ADAM WIENER, INFORMATION OFFICER Consulate of Israel Houston

Too Many Fast Eddies

As you noted in the brief obituary you published on pool shark "Fast Eddie" Parker [MILESTONES, Feb. 19], I disagree with Parker's claim that author Walter Tevis, my late husband, used Parker as the model for his character Fast Eddie Felson in his novel The Hustler (1959). More than a few pool sharks have claimed to have been the inspiration for Felson in the years since the book was published and the movie released. My husband invented his characters. As Walter said, he gave the character of pool player Felson attributes fairly common to any pool player: "Some charm, some nerve and a vast supply of ignorance concerning matters unrelated to pool." Other than that, Fast Eddie Felson was a figment of Walter's imagination. ELEANORA TEVIS New York City