Iraq, Vietnam make for poor comparison I read
with dismay the op-ed column by Alex Schulman (“U.S. must
remain adamant, persist with Iraq mission,” Sept. 29) which
drew comparisons between the United States’ current situation
in Iraq and the Vietnam War. It amazes me that an educated
political science graduate student could hold such egregiously
wrong views. As one who lived through the Vietnam War, and
witnessed TV broadcasts of our soldiers dying by the thousands, I
can say with conviction that the United States waited years too
long to pull out of the quagmire of Vietnam. Three administrations
knew full well that the war was un-winnable. Instead, more men and
more money were sent to wage war. Just like our unwinnable war in
Iraq, attacking another culture and religion serves no purpose
other than to create thousands of future terrorists: baby
Osamas.
Dean J. Garrett UCLA Class of ’78
Choice of people for “Speaks Out”
poor Reading Tuesday’s Daily Bruin I was shocked to
find what I could only describe as incredibly poor thinking on the
part of the editorial staff. In your “Speaks Out”
segment, asking the question, “Have the budget cuts affected
anything at UCLA that you’ve noticed? Have you been affected by the
fee increase?” three out of the five students questioned were
first-years who, unsurprisingly, had little to offer about the
changes our diminished budget has enforced. These students,
unfortunate enough to arrive at UCLA in its time of financial
crisis, are of course unable to speak of how budget cuts
have been, in part, responsible for nearly doubling our
student ticket prices for UCLA Live, or forcing EAP to cancel
nearly all its valuable events for fall quarter. They
haven’t experienced libraries cutting back their hours
and departments being forced to hire fewer TAs. I only
hope that in the future, the Daily Bruin will choose a more
appropriate selection of students to share their opinions.
 Nissa Cannon Fourth-year, comparative literature
& Italian