TUESDAY'S LETTERS: Bush's Iraq War 'Comma,' Praising 'For Better'

By: E&P Staff In today's edition, readers express anger at Bush's description of the Iraq War as a "comma" in the history of the country, and another reader chimes in with praise of "For Better or For Worse."

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Anger at Bush's 'Comma'

I was sickened by the callousness with which the PresiDebt of America dismissed his idiotic, pre-planned war with Iraq. I can think of no term more demeaning to the lives lost and the disabilities incurred for this misbegotten political commitment. And that observation is not limited to our troops, it also applies to the 30,000 innocent women, children, and non-combatant males who were killed so far, and the 150,000 lives of Iraqis who also were mangled. A "Comma", what an epitaph for all those so murdered.

Bush et al, by definition, have committed treason, and must be driven from office, he and all of the other plotters placed in prison. The New American Century monsters who gave Bush the plans for the Iraq war before he first stepped into the Oval Office technically even may deserve the military's fitting punishment of death by firing squad. The Treasury robbed, our debt ballooned by an incredible amount of bonds sold to our enemies, the Chinese, and the cornerstones of our national domestic security, Social Security and Medicare made bankrupt. I can only shake my head in disbelief ... and often anger ... at those who dared to vote the GOP line of mercenary bullshit.

Ed McClendon
Oregon



As always, George W. Bush is wrong. Iraq won't be viewed as a "comma" in history, but a "coma" in history. The coma of the Bush administration acting with blinders on and dreaming their way through their vision of a free and democractic Iraq, that would drift through the Middle-East in dream-like fashion. Before, during and after the invasion of Iraq they sleep-walked through every danger signal, every warning from cooler, wide-awake heads, going down every wrong road and turning their Edenic dream into the world's nightmare, which will have to be dealt with for generations to come.

Sandy Sand
West Hills, Calif.



Thank you. I went from a laugh to a very sobering graphic.

Mary Marschall

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'For Better' Better Than the Rest

Thanks for your article. I saw it linked on the "For Better or For Worse" Web site when getting my ?daily fix? and I have to agree that "FBoFW" is the best comic strip I have come across in my brief quarter-century existence (the comic is 2 years older than me!). ...

I briefly got the paper after graduating from University but realized that at this point in my life, I don?t make the time to read it regularly and it all ends up mostly un-touched in the recycling. That?s why I was so excited to find "FBoFW" online.

I honestly feel that it may not be the funniest, or the most politically daring, but it does not marry itself to one quality and therein it finds its genius. It is at once funny, touching, heart-felt, genuine, daring, and completely honest while also being audacious enough to allow the characters to get older and to Grow (huge distinction). And no character is too small to be left out of that process. In real life, each person is the hero of their own life story, but that does not keep the people around them from also existing and growing and changing, and so it goes in "FBoFW." In this story we are focused on the Pattersons, but each peripheral character which makes an appearance is given a chance to shine or fall and exist in their own right. It is certainly the most human of any comic I have ever read which is its strength in continuance and it?s downfall in not picking up fad-readers (which I consider just another good attribute). The characters are not unusual in any way, they have no super-powers, they don?t do anything particularly special, they have flaws ... and so each comic is a glimpse into the lives of characters who are so blessedly real that you forget they were created, and you emote for them, be it joy, worry, sadness of loss, etc, like they are extended family that you see infrequently.

You rumored that "FBoFW" may end in 2007. I can hope that this is not true, but when the time comes, when it ends, I will sorely miss it.

Alicia Beall
Baltimore, Md.