Letters to the editor

Non-stop bombardment

Eradicate those who have put us in the Middle East

Editor, The Times:

Unless one has relatives in Israel or Palestine, who cares about that little scuffle over there? ["Israeli troops seize Hezbollah stronghold," Times, News, July 25.]

We Americans have our own problems.

The U.N. and affiliated globalists have fanned the flames of this conflict for 60 years. Now they're pretending they're peacemakers! What if billions of dollars and tons of weapons weren't constantly being fed into the Mideast conflict? What if we just left the Mideast countries alone to work it out?

It is not hard to see big money and power-mongers fanning the flames for an even greater conflict. One could safely bet that the neocon plan for conquest in the Mideast is in full swing. Future generations of taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. Even worse is human suffering that is now taking place.

Yes, we Americans have our own problems: We need to weed out these neocons and their globalist conspirators! It's wake-up time because the alternative is World War III.

— Mark Lemmon, Ocean Shores

The parallel coordinates

I wonder how the residents of Western Washington would feel if over the period of several decades several hundred thousand citizens from other states came to our area. But rather than become a part of the existing state, they instead made clear from the outset their intentions to establish their own state in Western Washington, including a form of government to which we were opposed, it being perceived by us as totally inconsistent with our values. Much strife and bloodshed ensued as result.

In hopes of ending the conflict, Congress created the new state desired by the immigrants by carving a section from Western Washington.

Would we, the original residents, accept the decision particularly if an outcome were the loss of our lands and homes which had been in our families for generations?

How do we resolve a conflict when one side wants peace whereas the other side wants justice?

— Gary Minton, Seattle

Short of the mark

I share Eugene Robinson's lament of the paucity of leadership shown by the Bush administration ["Bush's dangerous worldview," syndicated column, July 25]. I have been disconcerted by the course of action taken in the aftermath of the horrific Sept. 11 attacks, but nothing has left me as dismayed as the simplistic comments made in relation to the current conflict involving Israel and Hezbollah.

It may surprise some Americans that a lot of us look to the U.S. to articulate rational ideas for dealing with the problems of our world. This is not an expectation that the U.S. should get involved in every conflict, but that at least it should draw from its enlightened society to offer guidance.

But when I hear your president throw shortsighted and expedient solutions at complex situations, I despair.

— Gisele Mesnage, Sydney, Australia

The 360º turret

For Americans to stop supplying Israel weapons, Middle Easterners must answer a question that is occurring to Americans: Why does it matter that it is Israel killing civilians in Gaza and Lebanon?

A month ago we watched Fatah and Hamas killing each other, and civilians. A few decades ago, we watched Lebanese killing each other, and civilians. Every day Iraqi civilians are murdered by Iraqis. Beirut has been devastated many times in history, most often by Muslims. If Hezbollah and Hamas were to succeed in wiping out Israel, they'd meet and start shooting each other, and civilians. So what does it matter that this week it is Israelis?

The evidence is strong that anyone who lives there can't — cannot live there, except under dictatorships that keep order. The evidence is strong that Americans have only two choices: deny Israel's right to exist, or send weapons. And if we deny Israel's right to exist, next year we must choose between Hamas' or Hezbollah's right to exist, and the year after between Sunnis' or Shiites' right to exist.

So, Middle East: To stop weapons from coming into Israel, stop killing each other. Persians: Stop killing Arabs. Sunnis: Stop killing Shiites. Hamas: Stop killing Fatah.

— Nathan Kirk, Auburn

Endgame

Shiites kill Sunnis, Sunnis kill Kurds, Kurds kill Shiites, Sunnis kill Shiites ... sounds a lot like rock, scissors, paper, doesn't it?

— Warren Jackson, Seattle

Sculptural dilemma

Trapped in cons

As a longtime resident of New York City and now blissfully ensconced here in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, I cannot begin to tell you how disheartened I was to see that Seattle intends to install one of Richard Serra's "sculptures" in Olympic Park ["Richard Serra's 5-part invention," Local News, July 23].

Having been subjected every day for years on my walk to work to the public vandalism that was his New York installation titled "Tilted Arc" and which the cognoscenti in Manhattan (read everyday New Yorkers) referred to as "That Ugly F***ing Wall," I'd like to warn Seattle not to get sucked into being sold the bill of goods by either Serra or the curators at the Seattle Art Museum that rusting steel plates that weigh in around the same as a good-sized shrimp boat and placed so as to maximally despoil a beautiful waterfront park somehow constitutes "art" for the public and is therefore a good thing.

Gigantism like this is nothing more than witless pretension run amok and I would suggest that a newspaper article that devotes its entire length to descriptions complete with illustrations of the heavy equipment required to place this "art," while saying only that Serra is known "for simple forms on a grand scale that interact powerfully with their environment" (read that as "big things that [muck] up the neighborhood") should be a tip-off to even a partially cognizant reader that what Olympic Park will actually be getting is something better suited to a junk yard — a place New Yorkers finally, and quite happily, I might add, relegated Serra's "Tilted Arc" after years of its blighting the streets of Lower Manhattan.

— C. Scott Smith, Kirkland

The form emerges

Re: Richard Serra's installation in the Olympic Sculpture Park [" 'There's nothing else like this in the country' for outdoor art, says artist," Entertainment & the Arts, July 25]: See campus installation at Western Washington University in Bellingham to see how Serra's "art" will look after it has "interacted with the environment" for a few years.

Or you could just check the shipyards down on Harbor Island.

To the selection committee for the sculpture park: Pssst ... the emperor has no clothes on.

— Patti Williams, Seattle