To the editor:

I should like to thank Mike Cuenca for his letter to the editor of Sept. 1. He makes it cogently clear that President Bush had no sensible excuse for taking seven minutes before responding in any way when he heard of the 9-11 attack.

To those Bush apologists like Michele Rutledge (Public Forum, Aug. 26) and Jim Morris (Aug. 27), it is one of the strongest indications of Bush’s indecisiveness and failure to act quickly or to do anything for seven minutes as commander in chief. I can only hope he will act more quickly the next time our nation faces such a crisis.

As a classroom teacher for more than 30 years, I know it is quite possible for a guest or teacher to excuse himself quietly and leave a room without having the students “jump up and down and have all the children be frightened to death.”

I commend Michele on the quiet, effective manner in which she communicated her concerns to her children about her relatives in the service. I have a daughter in the Army who fought in the first Gulf War and can be called up again at any minute, so I can understand her concern.

To those who deny or belittle John Kerry’s decisiveness in the Vietnam War, I can only repeat Sen. John McCain who said that the criticism of Kerry’s military service was “dishonest and dishonorable.”

Harold Piehler,

Lawrence