To the editor:

In the Lawrence Journal-World of April 10 there were two letters to the editor, one blaming Nancy Pelosi for her recent trip to the Middle East which had “no objective and nothing to accomplish other than to discredit Bush” and the other blaming a British Man of War that “stood by while a rogue nation’s thugs stole its crew members from under their very guns, never firing a shot, abandoning them.”

It is sad that such misinterpretations occur. The British crew members are now free, instead of the British having started a new war with Iran. Is that really so bad? And Nancy Pelosi, by the same token, has been trying to show that peaceful talks may be better than warfare. So is it wrong for those of us who believe that peaceful diplomacy is better than war to stand up and say so? Or should we just stand by and say nothing while thousands of our young men and women and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians are killed or crippled? Stand by while our country continues to lose much of the love, admiration and respect our tourists encountered in most of the world not long ago?

Harry G. Shaffer,

Lawrence