Letters to the Editor

I read with disgust Mark Bowden's apology for torture ("In defense of waterboarding," Dec. 23). I invite him to emigrate elsewhere in the world where such actions are accepted by society. We are America. We won the Cold War with ideas and ideals, not with behaviors used by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Communist Russia.

When discussing torture and pre-emptive war, it is simply not an issue as to what information is obtained; whether or not it is credible; and, yes, even if someone thinks it prevented attacks. This is America, and we do not do pre-emptive wars. Nazis do (Sept. 1, 1939). Imperial Japan does (Dec. 7, 1941). This is America, and we do not do government-sanctioned torture for which we imprisoned, and even executed, people during the Nuremburg trials.

Ronald N. Rubin

Bryn Mawr

I find it fascinating that a list of millionaires managing billions of dollars in assets would come to state government for the relatively paltry sum of $45 million to get a soccer stadium built ("St. Louis and Phila. battle for pro soccer," Dec. 26). I suppose they saw the sweetheart deals that the Eagles and Phillies got and wanted to get aboard the gravy train.

It's time that train comes to a halt. If the stadium would indeed be the "centerpiece of a $500 million complex," then the wealthy investment group should have no trouble spending the money.

Why spend $45 million for something that is used by 18,000 people "15 or 20 times a year" when the same money can be used to improve public facilities that are used by millions of people 365 times a year? It strikes me as a no-brainer, which is probably why state government is battling over it.

Anthony Preziosi

Mantua

» READ MORE: a_preziosi@yahoo.com

The Dec. 24 article, "Unpaid debt dire, likely to worsen," blames subprime mortgages as one factor in the rise of debt delinquencies, and no doubt that is important. But another major factor I see no one mentioning is the flight of good-paying jobs to other countries, decimating the finances of many hard-working people.

Did it never occur to those companies that people making half their former union wages are not going to be able to sustain the economy those same companies are depending on, especially with prices going up for such necessities as food, heating oil and gasoline? And with credit card interest rates as high as 36 percent? (I thought that kind of usury went out with Charles Dickens.)

Are none of those CEOs and economists thinking beyond next quarter's profit reports when they make those decisions? Don't they have any idea of the world other people are living in?

Carol LeFevre

Gwynedd

I believe it is time for The Inquirer to cease publishing the cartoons of Glenn McCoy. The Dec. 22 outrage attacking Al Gore for no good reason was beyond any bounds of decency.

I applaud the policy of The Inquirer of showing varying points of view in editorial cartoons, but surely there must be conservative cartoonists out there who do not sink to the deepest levels of slander and deceit as McCoy. Do your readers a real favor and give us truly humorous, even biting cartoons, of all political stripes, but don't publish the obscenities of McCoy.

Sidney Margulies

Wynnewood

It boggles the mind that we can spend billions to rebuild Pakistan, Gaza, the West Bank, etc., and can't rebuild New Orleans and environs, which remain in dire straits.

Ronnie Pleet

Philadelphia