To the editor:

Eric Struckhoff stated that, in my Nov. 28 letter, I had come to the “realization, however belated, that the Clinton administration made poor, even arrogant, decisions concerning war and intelligence.” He also pointed to my “perseverance on the well-known failures of the Clinton administration.”

If Mr. Struckhoff had actually read my letter, he would know that I merely offered a short list of events that occurred during the Clinton administration. I offered no judgment concerning those events.

Having said that, I do find it odd that Mr. Struckhoff and other Bush critics find fault with things President Bush has done, yet were silent when President Clinton did very similar things. In addition to my original list, I could add the fact that the Clinton administration in 1997 awarded Halliburton a nonbid contract to do work in the Balkans. Halliburton won another LOGCAP contract in 2001, but this time through competition. It was this contract that authorized Halliburton’s work in Iraq.

Oddly, the same folks who are loudly complaining about Halliburton’s current contract were silent in 1997.

Even though I offered no judgment concerning the actions of President Clinton or President Bush, Mr. Struckhoff ended his letter (J-W, Dec. 12) by accusing me of hypocrisy. This is a strange accusation coming from someone who, when presented with similar actions committed by both men, calls actions of the previous administration “mistakes,” while actions of the current administration are based on “lies.”

Kevin Groenhagen,

Lawrence