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Just as Gibbs' daughter Galen became aware of evil when she was a very young child, I remember having a frightening black-and-white dream when I was a 6-year-old wherein the red sun on a Japanese flag was the only object in color. I grew up in the 1940s, and we didn't have TV back then, so perhaps the image came from theater newsreels. The fear slips in whether parents are aware of it or not.

Anne M. Petty, MISSOULA, MONT.

I was 9 in September 2001. I didn't know anyone who died in the attacks, but I mark it as the day I lost my innocence. I cry every year, not so much for the people who lost their lives but for kids like me who were forced to grow up a little too fast.

Meredith Kenyon, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.

The President's Men

I take issue only with Joe Klein's last paragraph ["Obama 1, Osama 0," May 20]. Just because the "lamestream media" are caught up in their need for constant drama, don't assume that members of the public don't get Obama. Many of us do, and we are grateful to have an intelligent, wise-beyond-his-years President in office. We simply turn off the TV whenever the cooked-up drama is served.

Phoebe Saffold, ALVIN, TEXAS

Klein writes that President Obama "ran an exquisite operation" to find and kill bin Laden. There is a huge distinction between authorizing an operation and running it. Those of us who have served in the military and participated in high-risk operations are perhaps more acutely aware of the distinction than those who have not. By authorizing the operation, Obama made a tough, bold decision with momentous consequences, and he deserves credit for having made the call. The operation was run, however, by the Navy Seals. Ask the men who entered the compound who ran the operation that night and in the months leading up to it. I doubt they will answer "President Obama."

William Espino, CARLSBAD, CALIF.

The Lessons of Terror

In "A Long Time Going," Peter Bergen states, "The jihadists will be mindful that their world has passed them by" [May 20]. Though bin Laden may be buried in seawater, the snake still lives submerged in its cave. One thing we must keep in mind at all times: while it took the U.S. 10 years to establish bin Laden's whereabouts and get him in the crosshairs, consider the years of planning that went into the execution of the first lethal strikes of Sept. 11, 2001. Bin Laden's line of succession may not be immediately apparent, but if we underestimate the resiliency of radical Islam to regenerate over time, we will be condemned to repeat history.

Norman Singer, CARY, N.C.

Jack Bauer's Legacy

Thanks for the article by James Poniewozik reminding us of the epic TV show 24 and its inimitable terrorist-fighting hero, Jack Bauer [Tuned In, May 20]. In 2008 I went into a voting booth with a dilemma. I didn't want to vote for John McCain, whom I had disliked for years. And I certainly wasn't about to vote for the left-wing Democrat Obama. There was space for a write-in, so I voted for Bauer. I have never been sorry.

Brian Saint-Yves, PHOENIX

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