Punishment is irrelevant

Kimber Barlow, who wrote "King George W. is criminal" (Readers' Forum, July 23), is up in the night when he talks about secret absolute power by President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Remember the 15-plus U.N. resolutions of Iraq and the slaughter of 300,000 in Iraq, Mr. Barlow? Remember the U.S. Senate and House voting to support the president in the invasion of Iraq, and then funding that same war several times over?

The rounding up of suspected terrorists in a time of war and interrogating them is common intelligence practice. Remember, Mr. Barlow, we are still at war, and up against the worst barbarians ever, who Mortimer Zuckerman, editor in chief of U.S. News and World Report, described as a "culture of death, whose gift to civilization — the suicide bomber — can only be forestalled.

Punishment is irrelevant. Nor is there any hope of a dawning of reason. A culture that celebrates death is impervious to reason from those who celebrate life. Nothing can appease them."

Wake up, Mr. Barlow. We are in real — not political — danger!

Art J. VanTielen

Murray