Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “President Obama on Libya” (editorial, March 29):

Whether President Obama calls his action in Libya an intervention, an international mandate, a humanitarian mission or Operation Odyssey Dawn, and even if we try to protect civilians without sending in American ground troops or trying to overthrow Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, it is, plain and simple, a war.

It is a war that has already unleashed its vicious dogs, bringing what all wars bring: death and destruction. Violence begetting violence. The spending of precious resources for bloodshed abroad rather than for rebuilding at home.

I expected the man whom I worked for and voted for in 2008, my intelligent, educated, sensitive, poetic president, to know that. I expected a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize to know that.

SANDRA GORDON PETTIJOHN
Denver, March 29, 2011

Note from KBJ: Don't forget "articulate and bright and clean."