Those advertising execs are good: Since Oct. 7, 2001, we have spent $60 billion, are about to spend $50 billion more, and still have no idea where our target (bin Laden) is. And, to quote Mr. Bush, “This is just the beginning.” Mr. bin Laden spent something in the neighborhood of $200,000, killed 3,000 people and cost the U.S. tens of billions of dollars in a half-hour, and disappeared. Just guess who’s ahead.

Now, as the budget is about to be argued, we discover that virtually every significant domestic program is being sacrificed to continue this ludicrous pursuit. We lost 3,000 innocent lives in New York and D.C. We lose that many and more, each week, from inadequate, incompetent, or absent medical care. Do we see anyone saluting the flag or hear them singing the Star-Spangled Banner in support of the “war” on our health calamity? I don’t think so.

I submit that the greatest tragedy of Sept. 11 is that we have learned nothing from our loss. I’ve not seen one written word relating our extremely dubious and greed-driven involvement in the MIddle East from the 1967 conflict until this day. Nor have I seen one written world acknowledging that said involvement at least set the stage for our becoming the target of the likes of bin Laden. In our disgusting passion to exact revenge, we have lost sight (if we ever had it) of our responsibility for our national and foreign policy behavior, and its consequences. Arrogance and greed are damnations to clear vision. We have not grown, just grown blind.

Dick Walker,

Baldwin