Regarding the March 18 front-page article “First senior official openly breaks with White House”:
After Israel and the United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the prevailing American reaction was cautious, worried by no congressional consultation or exit plan. Few loud voices challenged the view that Iran was a threat. The concern was mostly how Trump took us to war, not why.
Now along comes Joe Kent, a 45-year-old former Special Forces warrior in Iraq and the Trump-appointed director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent resigned Tuesday, writing, “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.’’ Kent is a loyal supporter of President Donald Trump, whom he believes was misled. Kent continued, “High-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined [Trump’s] America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”
Trump has made many errors; this is epic. We certainly have the power to reduce Iran to dust, but why and by what right? I believe more Americans will come to see the monstrous mistake we are making. So many, from habit or conviction, see us as the good guys and Iran as the bad guys. It will be hard to swallow that we need to back away and accept retreat.
William N. Hoke, Manhattan Beach, California
Americans can reasonably question whether another open-ended war in the Middle East is necessary or in the national interest. But when Joe Kent blames Israel and a “powerful American lobby,” he is no longer just arguing foreign policy. He is reaching for a very old idea: that Jews are the hidden force behind American wars.
That kind of language is not only ugly; it also weakens the anti-war cause. If this war is wrong, its opponents should be able to explain why on the facts, the costs and the risks. They should not need rhetoric that echoes one of history’s oldest prejudices.
Michael Ascher, Merion Station, Pennsylvania
Over and over, critics of President Donald Trump demand that an administration official resign to protest the president’s illegal acts, and it never happens. That’s why what high-ranking intelligence official Joe Kent did was so startling.
Trump has behaved as dishonorably as the U.S. military has performed spectacularly. The president has been insulting allies at the same time he is trying to enlist their help in cleaning up a mess that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu created.
Kent’s critics can say he has to provide proof that his claims about Israel are true. But the president is the one who took the nation to war without clear proof to build a consensus among the American people.
Langdon Daughtrey, Columbus, Ohio
The resignation of decorated patriot Joe Kent should ring like an alarm across the nation. His words “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran” cut through the ashes of war and challenge Americans.
This conflict risks becoming Donald Trump’s Vietnam. Iran is no easy adversary: about 1 million troops, mountainous terrain, decentralized command. Trump’s “America First” was a promise to end wars, not to start one more. Kent’s resignation letter is the bell sounding before the Middle East becomes a graveyard for innocents caught in the crossfire. Are we listening?
Dimitris Eleas, New York
Violations of decency if not HIPAA
Regarding the March 17 Politics & The Nation article “President announces Chief of Staff Wiles’s breast cancer diagnosis”:
A cancer diagnosis is devastating for the patient and his or her family. It requires utmost emotional sensitivity and support as treatment options are determined, weighed and endured.
That did not stop President Donald Trump — who has defunded key cancer research — from grabbing headlines by announcing that Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, has early-stage breast cancer. “During the treatment period, she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy!” he crowed on Truth Social.
His obsessive need for publicity meant exploiting the trauma Wiles is experiencing.
Mel Tansill, Catonsville, Maryland
Reading with sadness March 17 Politics & The Nation article “Trump divulges that doctors told congressman he could be ‘dead by June,’” I was struck by the self-centered and self-referential comments our president made about Rep. Neal Dunn’s terminal diagnosis. Even House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), standing stunned beside President Donald Trump, was able to direct his comments to empathy for his Republican colleague from Florida. But Trump was focused on his own loss — of Dunn’s vote.
Steven Seeche, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Hollywood’s secret ‘Weapons’
In her March 18 Style column, “At this point, the Oscars can’t be fixed, so let’s just sit back and enjoy the show,” Monica Hesse wrote that this year’s ceremony “was, again, an illustration of the Oscars’ enduring tug-of-war between self-consciousness and self-aggrandizement.”
What is lacking every year for me in Oscar-night speeches or commentary is any mention of the young children used in filming disturbing scenes. Cannot one logically conclude by observing their turmoil-filled facial expressions that they’re perceiving, and likely cerebrally recording, the hyperemotional activity around them at face value rather than as purely fictitious? Are producers and directors comfortable and confident that no psychological harm will come to these children screaming in bewilderment? More so, how could their parents allow it?
Misuse of animals during filming rightfully isn’t tolerated; why not the same rule for children? Hollywood should use computer-generated stand-ins for children in all of these scenes.
Frank Sterle Jr., White Rock, British Columbia
Once upon a time in Hollywood, filmmakers cared about story. Now, cinema rarely says anything at all. This year’s Oscars crowned action-packed blockbusters like “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” — films that wouldn’t have even registered on the Academy’s radar 10 years ago.
Posturing and signaling have become the industry’s new hobby, while plots take a back seat and cameras do more work than actors.
Alan T. Kelly, Castlewarden, Ireland
Harlem’s heart
Kiki Shepard, the longtime co-host of “Showtime at the Apollo” who died Monday at age 74, is being remembered as the Black Vanna White. Or was Vanna White the White Kiki Shepard? Either way, Shepard was valued in the heart-space of Harlem. May her voice long reverberate in the Apollo Theater.
Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Florida
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