Another good one in the SF Chron:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Monday, April 24, 2006

Rice's unforgivable 'tactical error'

Editor:

Arrogance has been the trademark of the Bush administration from the very beginning. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has topped them all with her latest inconsiderate outburst when she said the administration's policy in the Iraq war was correct, but we have made thousands of tactical errors. Rice would not recognize a "tactical error'' if it hit her in the face.

Rice's comment was just not true, the strategy she referred to was fatally flawed and unworkable from the start. She has insulted every soldier and Marine engaged in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their tactics have not only been sound, they have been carried out in spite of faulty strategy. The audacity of a member of the administration to claim that its plan was sound, but the fighters on the ground screwed it up, "thousands of times,'' defiles and insults the sacrifices of nearly 2,400 dead and more that 160,000 wounded. It insults the men and women of our military establishment. No amount of spin can reverse that lie. At the very least, she should make a public apology to all the warriors who are fighting President Bush's war. It is Rice who has made the unforgivable error in tactics.

Finally, when one of the neocon hawks can say he held a gut-shot, dying soldier in his arms as he gasped his last cry of "mama!,'' before he breathes his last, maybe then he can speak of "tactics.''

GEORGE M. LINDSAY
San Francisco

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K