Dear Editor,

Lesley Stahl needs to be replaced immediately by a woman with a little more
life experience. Does she really believe that Clarke a man who has served
30 years under four presidents, three of them Republican, is a Kerry
co-"conspirator?"

And she looked absolutely stunned when introduced with the concept that
America is actually paying a price. "What price?" she asks. Has she been
living in a bubble?

To quote Eric Margolis consider the following,

"Invading and occupying Iraq has proven to be a financial disaster. The
invasion cost $105 billion US in direct expenses - the price of five
complete carrier battle groups, or one million low-cost apartments.

Occupying Iraq costs $9 billion monthly.

Pre-war neo-con plans to finance the occupation by plundering Iraq's oil
have been frustrated by sabotage. Congress estimates the overall cost of
"pacifying" and "rebuilding" Iraq for fiscal 2003 and 2004 at a staggering
$200 billion.

This money will have to be borrowed by the empty treasury, which, thanks to
Bush's reckless "war" spending, is running huge deficits heading toward
$400 billion, risking an explosion of inflation that threatens to undermine
the long-term bond market and further weaken the dollar.

The human cost of the war continues to rise. As of this writing, U.S.
losses amount to 555 dead, and about 9,000 casualties from combat,
accidents and serious illnesses.

Ten thousand Iraqi civilians were estimated to have been killed by U.S.
forces - in a war now described as waged under "mistaken intelligence
assumptions."

Of course one can add the complete loss of credibility on the international
stage. The only people who don't know that Bush lied about why they
started a war with Iraq are the Bible Belters still trying to denounce
evolution...and it seems a good part of the US broadcast news community,

Reality...deal with it.