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Editor: 

Once again I am amazed at the brilliance eminating from the home of one our “premier” institutions of higher learning. 

Stop the war? In favor of what? I hear all we care about is oil. In afghanistan? 

I hear our bombing is leading to poverty and starvation. Isn’t it true that only large amounts of foreign aid has kept them from starving for the last ten years and isn’t it also true that the majority of that aid has come from U.S. taxpayers. 

I hear one of your brilliant graduate students on CNN state that we are preventing them from advancing themselves through things like education. 

Isn’t this the country where women are not allowed an education, where women are not allowed a drivers license, where women are shot for being out after dark without their husbands? Isn’t this the country where T.V.s, VCRs and computers are forbidden. Isn’t this the country where men go to jail for an improper beard? Yes, I suppose the war will interfere with education in Afghanistan – and your point is? 

Are the people of Berkeley suggesting we have a rational discussion with these people? 

I am supposed to believe that the slaughter of 5,000 people is understandable because of the poverty of the region. Would the murder of your family, by the son of a wealthy citizen of Berkeley, be understandable because there are homeless people in California and if not would the elimination of such a murderer be a crime. 

Isn’t it amazing how easy it is to justify genocide when committed by non-wasps? 

Robert Colwell 

Coeur d’ Alene, Id.