To the editor:

We are warned that foreign policy should not be driven by public opinion but rather decided by an intelligentsia in private conference that believes that they are better informed and better equipped by their powerful positions in the political and social world of Washington, D.C., to make those decisions for us without any referendum. Then comes the reality of elections and those same individuals begin to worry about losing their cherished roles in the system.

Now public opinion regains its power to influence not only foreign policy but exactly who should be our representatives placed in those positions, so it is now that they read their mail and discover to their apparent dismay that the American electorate is very concerned about our having troops in 150 countries around the world and the huge sums of national treasure and numbers of American lives being thrown away with no chance whatsoever of permanently halting an idea whose time has come.

That idea is that America is no longer in a position to dictate to other nations what their future is to be.