To the Editor:

“A Hard Look at Haditha” (editorial, June 4) was a useful insight into the horror of what took place in Haditha, Iraq, last Nov. 19. Nothing less than a full inquiry is necessary.

This 21st-century equivalent of My Lai is reverberating throughout the world; all one has to do is examine the Muslim and Arab reaction in the foreign press. American soldiers are being seen as uniformed death squads no different from Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen.

Now is the time to remember the maxim “Evil flourishes when good men remain silent.”

Syed M. Majid
North Massapequa, N.Y.

June 4, 2006

To the Editor:

I told myself at the start of this war that history could not repeat itself with such exact insanity. But it has, and I was in physical discomfort just considering the Catch-22 that leads a marine to commit crimes on the scale of Haditha.

I now plainly see the line of responsibility that runs to the one place it will not be laid: the highest office in the nation.

Steven Walling
Portland, Ore., June 4, 2006

To the Editor:

The massacre at Haditha was unconscionable, and we wonder what makes these young soldiers so impervious to their abhorrent conduct.

In no way am I condoning what they did, but we have to think a bit about what makes them act like that.

They are snatched from their ordinary lives, given comprehensive but not fully adequate training, taught to fight and kill and are then sent to war in a foreign country where they are mistrusted and hated.

The constant roadside bombings, feeling hopeless and helpless, and seeing so much death around them and their friends and comrades die, they reach the point where they just vent their frustrations and stress.

They feel as well as know the hatred and anger toward them by a country that really did not want this gratuitous war in the first place.

Bella S. Grossman
Coconut Creek, Fla., June 4, 2006

To the Editor:

I disagree with Maureen Dowd (“Teaching Remedial Decency,” column, June 3): a refresher course in American “core values” is precisely what the American troops — and the American people — need at this point.

Unless we demonstrate that we live by our own rules — the values and ethics that made this country uniquely admired throughout the world and that make it possible to win moral arguments — we are going to be defeated by the Islamic fascists, for they will have exposed us to the rest of the world as hypocrites.

That was the real objective behind 9/11; not to “terrorize” us into submission. Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, North Korea, Iran and their ilk, either individually or collectively, cannot defeat America — only America can defeat America.

J. T. Stasiak
Hanford, Calif., June 3, 2006

To the Editor:

Frank Rich’s trenchant “Supporting Our Troops Over a Cliff” (column, June 4) reinforces my conviction that President Bush’s war legacy can safely be predicted to be, in baseball terms, “Three strikes and you’re out!”

The wars — against the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Iraq — have in common premature claims of victory and the fact that, years later, they persist with mounting costs in lives, treasure and national reputation.

By diverting resources to Iraq, Mr. Bush failed to secure his victories in Afghanistan. The Taliban are resurging; Osama bin Laden eluded capture; and the Iraqi invasion revitalized a decentralized terrorist network.

There is no foreseeable end to the war on terror. Nor to the Iraq war. The de facto goal is no longer oil, bases or a compliant government but getting out. But Mr. Bush is still at bat.

Are he and his inner circle considering a fourth war in the hope that a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities will somehow rally support to a flag-wrapped president sinking in the polls?

Stay in the ballpark.

Benjamin Solomon
Evanston, Ill., June 4, 2006