Letters

Rocket to the White House?

Senator Barack Obama may be focused on the upcoming congressional elections, but his supporters are eagerly anticipating a possible 2008 presidential run. Will he or won't he? Readers find his charisma and diplomatic approach refreshing but caution that he should wait until the time is right

After reading the excerpt from Barack Obama's new book, The Audacity of Hope, I've reconsidered my concern about his lack of experience [Oct. 23]. I'm inclined to vote for a smart, effective communicator and consensus builder who may have little experience but is pragmatic and inclusionary like him rather than someone who has experience but is absolutist and exclusionary. Our current President derived seemingly little benefit from his years as Governor of Texas. The Founding Fathers and another gentleman from Illinois in 1860 had no such qualifications, but they didn't do so badly.

JAMES M. MATAYA Annandale, Va.

As impressed as I am by Obama, I fear he would be this generation's Jimmy Carter, a man whose humility we appreciate and whose inexperience we're willing to overlook simply because we desire a change from the lies and arrogance of his immediate predecessors. The presidency is no place for on-the-job training.

HOWARD BALDWIN Sunnyvale, Calif.

To explain the mania surrounding Obama's political career, Joe Klein quoted Shelby Steele, who said that "it's all about gratitude" and that white Americans are enthusiastic about the Senator because he allows them to forget about "racial guilt." As an Asian American who strongly supports Obama, where do I fall? Once again, a conversation on race has been reduced to white and black. I am energized by the Senator because he is smart, thoughtful and pragmatic. He represents me, a Democrat with strong Christian values. He knows the struggle of trying to attain the American Dream and the difficulties of being an ethnic minority in America. It's as simple as that.

CHONG-HWA LEE Derwood, Md.

I am a Christian and conservative Republican, but I can't help hoping that Obama will become our next President. I believe he is wrong about abortion, but he has acknowledged in a refreshingly Socratic way that he can't just dismiss the views of those on the other side. That may be politicking to earn my vote, but if a pro-life Republican ultimately sends us into a third world war with status quo Republican rhetoric, a pro-life position is kind of pointless.

ERIC MURR Greencastle, Pa.

The story on Obama reminded me of something Bono, one of your previous Persons of the Year, has said repeatedly: "America is more than just a country; it's an idea." The Senator gives me a similar feeling. True, he hasn't done very much yet, and he may not be the boldest voice we are longing for. But the very idea of how he embodies America is what excites us Democrats. We are waiting to see where he takes us, and we are ready for the ride.

SIMEON HUMPHREYS Chicago

Obama may not be our aviour, but he has the charisma and capability to be our Moses and lead us out of the wilderness.

BILL LONGTINE Evansville, Ind.

Hell will freeze over and the devil will be on ice skates before the South will ever support a mixed-race liberal Democrat for President. There are still a lot of people down here who believe that miscegenation (which, like abortion, used to be a crime) remains immoral and sinful. Add to that Obama's al-Qaeda-sounding name, and it's plain that he has no chance of being elected President.

MICHAEL P. DELANEY Pasadena, Texas

The Scramble for the Bomb

"When Outlaws Get The Bomb" [OCT. 23], on the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear-weapons test, overlooked the significance of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the only binding, multilateral commitment to the goal of disarmament by nuclear-weapons states. Signatories are obligated to negotiate and achieve the elimination of nuclear arms. To have any hope of creating security, the world's powers have to work toward disarmament.

FREDRIK S. HEFFERMEHL Oslo

Like all nuclear-weapons programs, North Korea's should be a concern for everyone. The notion of who is an outlaw and who occupies the moral high ground on enforcing nuclear nonproliferation isn't as clear to me as your article makes out. I suspect that the U.S.'s current work on tactical nuclear weapons and our unwillingness to reduce our inventory of warheads are in violation of the NPT--making the U.S. an outlaw. If we're including violent tendencies in an analysis of risk, the U.S. is the only nuclear power to have used those weapons on human beings. I would say our role in leading nonproliferation enforcement efforts is somewhat hypocritical. We need to set a better example.

TIMOTHY C. HOHN Lake Forest Park, Wash.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, I recall National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice stating that, in lieu of solid proof that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." I also recall getting into heated debates and insisting that North Korea was the actual case of a dictator working toward acquiring WMD. While the Bush Administration pursued a war in Iraq, the smoking gun turned into a mushroom cloud in Pyongyang. The Bush Administration has failed miserably in addressing the North Korean threat, and its policies (or lack thereof) have made us all less safe.

NANA KWAMIE Toronto

NorthKorean dictator Kim Jong Il has clearly shown with the recent nuclear test that bilateral negotiations are meaningless to him. He has made laughingstocks of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, whose administrations engaged in direct talks with North Korea about nuclear proliferation. Kim has also made fools of South Korean Presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun. Who else in the world is going to dream of engaging in bilateral talks with Kim Jong Il again, unless in delusion?

KE PARK Anaheim, Calif.

Is the U.N. Obsolete?

In his essay disparaging the U.N., Charles Krauthammer argued that violence and greed are "the natural way of nations" [Oct. 23]. That is the lazy man's excuse for resisting change and progress. As a means to create security and stability, war has failed over the millenniums. Our experiment in international collaboration, nonviolent conflict resolution and mutually beneficial partnerships--still in its infancy--will continue to suffer missteps and setbacks, not the least of which include the present U.S. Administration's uninformed and shortsighted policies. My hope for the future of civilization lies in the goals, purposes and accomplishments of the U.N.

PEG MAHER Cedar Rapids, Iowa

I applaud Krauthammer's realistic take on the North Korean issue--that a "dynamic, capitalist, reunited Korea" would be stiff competition for a China that aspires to impose its will on East Asia, hence Beijing keeps its unruly neighbor alive and refuses to support tough U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Let's hope for the sake of the Korean people that China does not succeed in promoting its self-interests and that there may be a reunited Korea before our lives are over.

JUWON YANG Los Angeles

Krauthammer rightly commented that the U.N. has failed to achieve many of the goals for which it was established. Taiwan is well aware of this painful reality, having endured exclusion from the supposedly universal world body because of Chinese pressure for more than three decades. But there is no civilized alternative to the principle of international cooperation in pursuit of the common good. The world's only hope for the ethical, nonviolent resolution of conflict--whether in the Taiwan Strait, on the Korean peninsula or anywhere else--lies in the collective cooperation of U.S.-led democracies. Give up that hope, and we are lost indeed.

BEN SHAO TAIPEI ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL OFFICE New York City

Cutting Our Losses

Leslie Gelb's Viewpoint "Would DEefeat in Iraq Be So Bad?" [Oct. 23] argued that after the U.S. defeat in Vietnam, "the dominoes did not fall." Well, they didn't fall as far as the U.S. was concerned. But maybe someone should ask the Cambodians about what happened after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam. I think the families and friends of anyone who was killed under Pol Pot would have a different story.

LAUREN COOK Dallas

Gelb has got to be kidding. Can the terrorists in Iraq be deterred by mutual assured destruction, as the Russians were? Can we defense-spend them into oblivion? If we cut and run in Iraq, it will be annexed by Iran, a larger share of the world's oil will be used as a weapon against the U.S., a Shi'ite majority will have free rein to commit genocide against the Sunnis and Kurds, and the Shi'ites will have more money to buy arms for Hizballah.

JOSE RAMIREZ Lindenhurst, N.Y.

The U.S. must aid Iraqis as they develop their fledgling government, ensuring that oil profits are shared among the country's factions. With more security, a new infrastructure and a government that they can have a say in, Iraqis could have a more hopeful and satisfying life, and a more stable region could be ensured. The U.S. should show that it isn't interested in "owning" Iraq by eliminating most of its 14 bases there. That approach, however, would seem impossible under the current U.S. Administration. Fresh new faces and vision are sorely needed for the world to see that Americans really want the best for the Iraqis.

DEBBIE METKE Milwaukee, Wis.

Bad Faith

RE "Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed" [Oct. 23]: As a member of an evangelical Lutheran congregation, I do not feel betrayed or disenfranchised by the story of the White House's political maneuverings to gain Christian conservatives' votes. I was never inspired by this President's profession of faith--not by the story of his born-again triumph over alcohol or by his wish to help the poor and needy and certainly not by his purported Christian values toward his fellow man. On the other hand, his lack of statesmanship, his arrogant management style and his lack of intellectual curiosity send clear messages of a man in a job over his head. I remain hopeful that our next national leader will demonstrate more competence and simply subscribe to the doctrine of treating others as you wish to be treated.

RICK EULO Rosemont, Pa.

I feel that David Kuo, the former second-in-command in the President's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, is a smart man, but I am shocked that he bought into the promises of the current Administration lock, stock and barrel. This country is too religiously diverse for one religion to have an office in the White House. I am sorry for Kuo's feeling of personal betrayal, but what happened to the Evangelicals was just politics as usual.

JOAN BURKE

Oyster Bay, N.Y.

Teens at the Wheel

Kudos for the insightful story "Putting Limits on Teen Drivers" [Oct. 23]. TIME identified two of the root causes for the horrific teen driving statistics: the developing adolescent brain and parents who think accidents happen only to other people's kids. Having trained one of my teenagers to drive, I concur with your story's conclusion that adding new laws and restrictions on teenagers is a good beginning, but parents must add more rigor and oversight as their children are taught to drive.

CHRIS ADAMS Cincinnati, Ohio

I was glad to learn that so many states have adopted laws lengthening the waiting period before teens can obtain a "go anywhere, anytime" driver's license. As the mother of eight kids, I understand fatigue from constant chaperoning. But I would rather chaperone than bury my child or know that my child caused someone's death. The laws are in place to protect not only teen drivers but also their passengers and other drivers on the road with them.

JENNIFER L. SUTTON Arlington, Tenn.

Don't Sneer at Our Heroes

Your interview with Clint Eastwood and your glowing review of his movie Flags of Our Fathers [Oct. 23] disparaged the idea of war heroism at a time when the U.S., in the hard years to come, is going to desperately need heroes and patriots. Although the movie is ostensibly about the World War II battle of Iwo Jima and our government's propaganda campaign around the famous flag-raising photo, Eastwood obviously meant it as a comment on the Iraq war and the cynical machinations of the Bush Administration. I hold no brief for Bush and the Iraq war, but to attack them by sneering at the heroism and patriotism of Americans who served in an earlier, moral war is despicable.

AL RAMRUS Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Armageddon Always

James Poniewozik's essay "Postapocalypse Now" [Oct. 23] was an interesting look at pop culture's fixation on doomsday fantasies, but what we should take from the current visions of mass destruction is not the notion that we're getting too comfortable with Armageddon but the realization that fears of Armageddon have always been with us. Our time is little different from all the eras in which people believed the end of the world was imminent. Yet here we are in a world that somehow has not come to an end, resurrecting ancient symbols to describe our modern doomsday and thinking that things have never been this bad.

GLENN MEYER Union City, Calif.

I enjoyed Poniewozik's essay, but I don't think the U.S. is really "comfortable with the apocalypse." Despite all the bad things going on now, I think most Americans are oblivious, as they rarely read a newspaper or magazine and spend way too much time watching television sitcoms. But then, who am I to say that they don't have the best approach to handling impending doom? I guess I'll have to be worried for everyone.

BILL HAMELAU Charlotte, N.C.