Letters

The Secret History

"People can try to blame Bush for failing to act, but history will lay the intelligence blunders at Clinton's feet, where they belong." NOLA LEAHY Coto de Caza, Calif.

Your article "They Had A Plan," on the efforts by the Clinton and Bush administrations to take the offensive against al-Qaeda [Special Report, Aug. 12], was a gripping saga that underlines a sad history of misguided political maneuvering and ineptness in preventing attacks. The failure to respond quickly allowed the terrorists to carry out acts that still reverberate in the lives of innocent citizens not only in the U.S. but all over the world. Alas! We are waiting for the day when concern for human suffering transcends political intrigue. JAYANTA GUHA Chicoutimi, Que.

The entire Washington bureaucracy of both administrations will ultimately be held responsible for the failure to recognize the terrorist threat and take steps to counter it. But it was during the eight years of Clinton's presidency that the threat grew and metastasized into the cancer that we live with today. No amount of spin will ever change that. DOUG ISRAEL New York City

It is chilling to read that the Bush Administration was preoccupied with fantasyland projects like missile defense instead of focusing on the real danger of terrorist attacks. The Bush group has unfortunate priorities. Clearly it is not qualified for the job. SALLY RAYNES Alexandria, Va.

What about President Clinton's inadequate response to the first bombing of the World Trade Center, in 1993, and the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen? Why didn't the Clinton team act quickly to retaliate in both those instances? That's the question. Why is it that when we have a President in the Oval Office with integrity, you want to blame him? You should be looking at the Administration that had a "good" time and a cigar in the Oval Office. CAROL (KERI) DEVINE York, Pa.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of your report was the decision by the Clinton Administration to shelve its plan to attack al-Qaeda because it wouldn't have been "appropriate" to launch a major initiative against Osama bin Laden and hand a war to the incoming Bush Administration. Since when are decisions of national security based on political appropriateness? And when did Clinton begin considering the appropriateness of anything anyway? CANNON C. ALSOBROOK Alpharetta, Ga.

Future historians will reflect on the degree to which partisan politics and political correctness have weakened the West's resolve and crippled its ability to identify the enemy and defend itself. MICHAEL MONFILS Green Bay, Wis.

This report was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. To pretend that a real assault on Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan launched by the Clinton Administration before Sept. 11 would have been met with anything but howls of protest from the likes of Time and others in the media is amusing. Do you really want us to believe in a revamped image of Bill Clinton as a staunch antiterrorist crusader? TIM HAGEN Albertville, Minn.

I worked closely with Richard Clarke, who served as the Clinton White House's point man on terrorism, during the first years of the Reagan Administration, and I have remained friends with him ever since. It will surprise no one who knows Dick that he was one of the few people in the entire government who properly assessed the terrorist threat and proposed actions that--if anyone had listened--would have saved innocent lives. The people who viewed him as the boy who cried wolf too often were clearly wrong and deserve to be fired. Dick, on the other hand, deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom. DAVID N. SCHWARTZ New York City

Iraq: Weighing the Threat

After reading your story "Theater of War," about the various game plans discussed in the Bush Administration for U.S. attacks on Iraq [Nation, Aug. 12], I must say that I side with Secretary of State Colin Powell's camp. I think we should contain Saddam Hussein and use diplomacy to effect change, not resort to military force. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's hard-line camp carries aggressiveness too far. George W. Bush is willing to sacrifice the lives of Americans and others to do what his father had not achieved by the end of the Gulf War: the elimination of Saddam. GAIL A. FORD Southbury, Conn.

I was shocked that you used the term jihadist to describe Rumsfeld's more hawkish camp while using pragmatic for Powell's State Department team. This biased use of language implies that one group is filled with fanatics bent on war at all costs while the other is levelheaded and reasonable. MICHAEL W. CAREW Waltham, Mass.

A Different Saudi Arabia

I had hoped to learn something from your report on the Saudis [World, Aug. 5], but I found it long on opinion and short on fact. If Saudi fundamentalist clerics "agitate the masses," that is surely their democratic right. Doesn't George W. Bush do the same? The attempt to criticize the Saudis misfires completely; instead, one comes away with the belief that the U.S. is a state that values its allies only insofar as they provide military or commercial advantage. COLIN V. SMITH St. Helens, England

You said that we Saudi Arabians are anti-American. It's true that although the U.S. is the No. 1 exporter to Saudi Arabia, we still oppose U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. You also associated Saudis' feelings with what you called Wahhabism. The fact is, similar anti-American feelings are also found elsewhere in the Arab world and indeed throughout most of the Middle East. SALAH ALI Riyadh

The Boss Is Back

Bruce Springsteen has been able to define an emotion abstractly and concretely [Music, Aug. 5]. His new CD The Rising is full of hope but at the same time provides a jolt of post-Sept. 11 reality. The abstract quality of the songs is effective because it allows me to create my own perceptions about the lyrics. DAVID YOKEN Turku, Finland

As an old '70s rock-'n'-roll working stiff now in my 40s, I have for quite some time felt disillusioned with what my rock heroes have had to say. It seemed they had nothing of importance for me to hear, and I feared rock might be dead. Now, after reading your story on Springsteen, I have renewed resolve. Although my loss could never compare with that of the victims and survivors of Sept. 11, I am sure The Rising will be part of their healing as it will be of mine. God bless Springsteen--craftsman, Renaissance man, healer, saint. STEVE SPARROW Abbotsford, B.C.

A couple of days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I happened to watch America: A Tribute to Heroes, the telethon in support of Americans who directly suffered from the attack. I was amazed by those artists who, thanks to their widespread energy, helped Americans cope with their sense of loss. One guy in particular, Bruce Springsteen, struck me with the intensity of his words and music. I have bought The Rising, and listening to his songs, I know the Boss has changed something with his art. FEDERICA BERTELE Reggio Emilia, Italy

In a time when a lot of modern music is brought to us by people who are judged by their looks and dance routines, somebody like Bruce is needed. He has made a very strong political and emotional statement with this record. PHILIP C. DOWE Bovenden, Germany

Bambi Gets Even!

Your brief report on hunters who may have died from a version of mad-cow disease, "Deadly Feast: Can Venison Kill You?" [Science, Aug. 12], should rightly have been titled "Bambi Gets Even!" I've argued in the past that hunting is not a sport, because if it were, both sides would be comparably matched. But now perhaps it truly can be called a sport--with both hunters and prey having an equal opportunity to kill each other. CHERIE TRAVIS Downers Grove, Ill.

Rick's Cafe Redux?

President Bush's response to the misdeeds of corporate ceos [Nation, Aug. 12] reminds me of Claude Rains' famous line in Casablanca. As Captain Renault, Rains closes down Humphrey Bogart's casino and says, "I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"--just as the crooked roulette dealer hands him his winnings. DOUG WEISKOPF Cincinnati, Ohio

Mosquitoes Hit the Highway

The spread of the West Nile Virus could be because of interstate traffic of cars [Science, Aug. 12]. Mosquitoes are dragged along in the wake of cars as unsuspecting vacationers travel from east to west. Major highways generally have drainage ditches next to them; crows feed at the roadsides, and lots of mosquitoes breed in those ditches. DICKSON DESPOMMIER, PROFESSOR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY New York City

Beached Again

Pilot-Whale strandings are nothing new for Cape Cod [Science, Aug. 12]. Henry David Thoreau, writing in the mid-19th century in his book Cape Cod, described beached whales. That was long before people started theorizing that agricultural runoff and global warming might be tainting the food chain and causing marine-mammal deaths. LEN SURETTE Santa Ynez, Calif.

A Camp for Compassion

Thank you for your informative article on Camp Heartland, the Minnesota summer camp for youngsters with HIV and AIDS [Society, Aug. 12]. I believed that prejudice against kids with AIDS was a thing of the past, but your story shows that ignorance and hysteria are still with us. It is mind-boggling how people can single out a few defenseless children for rejection because they are ill. BILL HEINMILLER Athens, Ala.