To the editor:

Now that the worst of the fighting in Iraq is over, we can get on with the business of liberating some other opposed and brutalized people. Hey! How about the Congolese?

These people have suffered the bloodiest fighting since World War II in a five-year civil war. Their children’s mortality rate is the highest anywhere on the planet. There, the United Nations spends $600 million a year doing little more than observing the stealing, raping and killing while protecting themselves against disease and harm. Even though the carnage going on there is far worse than anything we could dream of happening in Afghanistan or Iraq, the powerful allies of the United States and Britain won’t get involved. Jungle warfare is much harder than fighting in the desert (ask any Vietnam vet) with not much to easily gain in return.

If we are to be the world’s liberators, let’s do it with a compassionate agenda, not one of power, riches and patriotic fervor.

Doris Stine,

Lawrence