To the editor:

It’s encouraging to note Kevin Groenhagen’s realization, however belated, that the Clinton administration made poor, even arrogant, decisions concerning war and intelligence (Public Forum, Nov. 28). He confounds congressional and U.N. mandates, but his enthusiasm is nonetheless admirable.

However, his perseverance on the well-known failures of the Clinton administration raises the question: Has Mr. Groenhagen’s awareness of presidential malfeasance always been delayed three or more years? If so, we can expect him to announce sometime in 2006 that the Bush administration is failing to act meaningfully against terrorism, practicing arrogant and destructive unilateralism, and deliberately deceiving the public

Mr. Groenhagen, does this make you angry? Can you not see the present? Do you choose not to, or did your critical powers shrivel when Bush entered the oval office?

The mistakes of any previous administration will never justify the lies of the current or any following administration. Those of us who condemned the disastrous policy failures of the Clinton administration and, just as importantly, the coziness of its immediate predecessors with known supporters of terrorist organizations and brutal dictators at the time they occurred now condemn the current administration’s oil-driven aggression, selective use of intelligence, and outright lies meant to gain support for war.

Why are you silent, Mr. Groenhagen? Will you choose to continue living in blinkered hypocrisy, or will you condemn the lies no matter their source and motivation?

Eric Struckhoff,

Lawrence