Letters

(2 of 2)

Of Frailty and Fire

Human frailty was the cause of the devastating Colorado forest fires, according to your report [NATION, July 1]. How utterly pathetic! U.S. Forest Service employee Terry Lynn Barton caused a horrific tragedy that displaced more than 8,000 people, destroyed thousands of acres and took the lives of fire fighters. But your story sympathetically portrayed Barton as the survivor of a terrible life. What in the heck does a sexual-harassment case not settled to her satisfaction and her husband's lack of ambition have to do with causing a catastrophic wildfire?
MARK INNES
Livermore, Calif.

Search and Destroy

I was deeply disturbed to learn that 78% of those you polled think that Osama bin Laden is alive [WORLD, July 1]. Why do they think so? Is it because they will feel let down if the almighty U.S. government doesn't capture, try and put him to death? We are a nation obsessed with vengeance. And this is the same emotion that drives terrorists like bin Laden. I hope he's dead, but if he is alive, I hope he is never caught. I do not want to see the U.S. as hell-bent on vengeance and barbarism as the terrorists are.
DAVID E. SCHAEFER
Waterloo, Wis.

Bin Laden was raised in Saudi Arabian affluence and has spent much of his life that way. I believe he is living somewhere in the kind of comfort allowed by his wealth. If you think he and his entourage are living an ascetic life in a dismal cave, you are mistaken.
CORDELL PUCKETT
Albuquerque, N.M.