Letters

The No. 1 Killer of Women

Your report on women and heart disease struck home [HEALTH, April 28]. In 1998 I was a 49-year-old married workingwoman who found herself not feeling well. The diagnosis was high blood pressure. I was given medication, but it didn't help. I had no energy and poor skin color, and I passed out twice at home. One day I told my family I felt as if I were dying, and I was taken to the hospital. My father died of heart failure at 59, and my mother had heart surgery in her 60s. It should not have taken so long for someone to figure out that I had a problem with my heart. Thank God, I finally found a great cardiac specialist. But all too often women with heart problems receive an incorrect diagnosis. LAURA CUPO West Haven, Conn.

As a nurse with experience in many health-care areas, I went through my worst ordeal when a friend, a 50-year-old woman, had a massive coronary. We couldn't save her, even with all our emergency medical technology. She had smoked and taken hormones but had shown no outward signs of heart disease. Since then I have tried to inform every patient of the need for tests and vigilance about the symptoms of heart disease. Women's heart-disease symptoms are different from men's. Regular cardiovascular checkups would save more women's lives. JANNIE MARTIN Baytown, Texas

I realize that heart disease and cancer are competing for the same research dollars, but don't blame breast-cancer-awareness programs for taking women's minds off our cardiac health. If we fear breast cancer more than heart disease, perhaps it is because breast cancer is more likely to strike us in our 30s and 40s, when our careers are in full bloom and we may still have young children. Perhaps it is because breast cancer can be disfiguring, damaging our self-esteem and interfering with our most intimate relationships. Certainly, women are concerned about heart disease, but they can't be faulted for also taking breast cancer very, very seriously. JANE VAN CONEY Cincinnati, Ohio

It is gratifying that research is finally homing in on women's heart disease. But as a 50-year-old woman with no risk factors who has already had two heart attacks, I know there is still much work to be done. In the meantime, I go about my very active life trying to ignore the insidious feeling that at any moment it might happen again. The initial symptoms of my first heart attack were so mild that I unwisely finished the tennis match I was playing. Women should recognize the symptoms of a possible heart attack and seek medical help immediately. MARY E. FARLEY Mount Kisco, N.Y.

Lingering Questions

In the article "Unfinished Business" [THE OCCUPATION, April 28], you noted that there are still unresolved issues in Iraq, including incontrovertible evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). For months we were told that the reason the U.S. was going into Iraq was to prevent an out-of-control dictator from using WMD that he was concealing. The situation was repeatedly compared to that of Germany before World War II, and the hawks asserted that, boy, we were not going to play the role of an appeasing Neville Chamberlain. So where are the WMD? Now we are faced with rebuilding a shattered country, and the current rationalization for the war is that Americans were saviors, bringing democracy to Iraqis. Or have we simply fostered a political incursion that is paying off for those in the right places? HELEN RANDALL Breckenridge, Colo.

If people don't feel the goal of freedom was reason enough to oust a murderous tyrant, then their reasons for opposing the conflict are far more appalling than the motives they claim that President Bush had for invading Iraq. MIGUEL A. GUANIPA Whitinsville, Mass.

If Saddam Hussein does not turn up anywhere in the Middle East, it might be wise to search for him where nobody would think to look--say, in a posh hotel in Las Vegas. Perhaps he might even be meeting with Osama bin Laden there. TURAN FETTAHOGLU Munich

Unprevented Plunder

In the report on the looting of Iraq's museums and libraries, TIME stated that "while coalition forces took pains to safeguard Iraq's oil ministry in Baghdad, they left the nation's cultural heritage wide open" [BAGHDAD'S TREASURES, April 28]. This is an example of the cultural bankruptcy that characterizes the Bush Administration. The price of one jet bomber would go a long way toward endowing any major U.S. museum, helping ensure fiscal stability for generations. Actions by the coalition forces to protect the Iraq Museum might have done much to convince people throughout the Middle East that we were serious about their welfare. Instead, we're doling out billions to American companies to rebuild damaged infrastructure and failing to take into account another kind of damage--to Iraq's cultural heritage--that could have been prevented but cannot be repaired. JOHN JANOVY JR. Lincoln, Neb.

After this great military victory, it is incomprehensible that the coalition could not provide a few more soldiers to protect the cultural heritage of the Iraqi people. We will have to live with this shame for many years to come. JOEL RICHMON Piedmont, Calif.

Iraqis are mourning the looting of their museums and blaming the coalition troops for not protecting them. But if the relics and art objects were so dear to Iraqis, why didn't they do more to protect them? I saw pictures of people in Baghdad carting off anything and everything--including the kitchen sink--with huge grins on their faces. Although the loss of antiquities is tragic, it was the Iraqis who destroyed the record of their history. The U.S. came to give them a future. Spare me the crocodile tears and pointing fingers. MURPHY CARPENTER Charlotte, N.C.

Hold the Applause

Joe Klein's column was headlined "Can Bush Ride His Triumph into 2004?" [IN THE ARENA, April 28]. Oh, puh-leeze! It was President Clinton and his Secretary of Defense William Cohen who were responsible for cultivating our effective military. Our young men and women made it work. We taxpayers paid for it. All Bush did was send the troops off on a questionable adventure. The war was hardly "his" triumph. If Bush wants to win in 2004, he needs to fix the economy. BOB FORSTER Nehalem, Ore.

I take exception to Klein's assertion that Bush is a "deft politician with big ideas and with the guts to take risks that can yield great victories." It was not a big idea or much of a risk to wage war against Iraq's ragtag military. Bush might have scared the bejeezus out of cream puffs like Iran and Syria, but North Korea turned Bush's pre-emption doctrine on its ear and obtained meetings with the U.S. Besides wage war and cut taxes, what has Bush done? PHIL KENNY Colorado Springs, Colo.

Melancholy Mama

Your critic Josh Tyrangiel speculated that the sad mood of Madonna's new CD American Life might be due to family problems [MUSIC, April 28]. As someone who has lived abroad as Madonna has, I propose that she is reflecting on American culture from the perspective of living overseas. Perhaps the album's lyrics describe Madonna's attempts to understand American culture and how it has shaped her life. Exploring American life is a profound experience. I don't feel sad for Madonna; I'm glad that she can take advantage of this opportunity. MELISSA LEONE Dallas

The melancholy mood of Madonna's American Life isn't sad or lacking in exuberance, as your reviewer claimed. All love is shadowed by loss, and this album's beautiful music explores the relations and emotions that shape people's lives. It is stunning and brought me to tears. TOM STRONG San Francisco